


Good Night, Good Luck

by theSilentium



Series: The Bad Batch and their Bad Luck [2]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Gore, F/M, Horror, Hunters & Hunting, Monsters, Murder, Nightmares, Original planet, Serious Injuries, Violence, original lore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:20:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29386185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theSilentium/pseuds/theSilentium
Summary: There was a reason why Fors was such a mystery to the outside world. Why every battalion send there to exploit the resources never came back, droids and clones alike. A very simple reason. A planet that wants to be left alone learns to protect itself. The methods used to keep the invaders away were unknown - for no one had ever left the planet alive to reveal them to the galaxy.For millenias the locals had respected the planet by giving her her needed time to recharge from their abuse of the day. To the bravest who dared disturb the planet when the sun was down, the most popular prayer would be whispered; Good night, good luck.
Relationships: Hunter (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)/Reader
Series: The Bad Batch and their Bad Luck [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158683
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	1. Here We Go Again

**Author's Note:**

> Fors has not said it’s last words.

“This,” Tech paused to find the right words to not insult you once more. “went rather good considering it’s your first time.” He met your gaze, clearly concentrating on your body language to see if you were insulted or not.

You stared back at him blankly, eyebrow raised, hands joined on your lap. You turned your chair to face him completely and moved forward to get your elbows on your knees, never breaking the eye contact. 

“Cut the crap. Say what you wanted to say." 

"Two things.” He immediately followed like the words were _dying_ to leave his lips. “One, this should have been a lot more chaotic. Two, there was no way you actually never flew a ship before.” His eyes squinted like this would press the info out of you.

“You accusing me of lying?” You remained stoic, not letting him know yet about your little secret and actually making him squirm in his seat. 

“No!” He straightened in his seat, frowning in confusion as if you’d just slapped him. In the background, you could hear footsteps getting closer to the cockpit door. 

“Are you?” He continued, uncertain.

“No." 

"For a second I doubted it was you piloting.” Hunter entered, followed by Wrecker who stood right behind him. “Very good for a first flight." 

"Yeah! We could tell it wasn’t Tech because of the landing! It was too smooth.” Wrecker chimed in to his smaller brother’s dismay. 

“Thanks.” You answered with a nod at the same time Tech yelled his indignation. 

“She cheated!" 

"And how can you cheat at piloting a ship?” Crosshair snickered at the apparent attempt to keep his reputation of best pilot of the Marauder. Apparently you were promising enough to be a threat. This was interesting. 

“Tech. She doesn’t have a droid. She couldn’t cheat.” Hunter pointed out, confused. 

“She said she didn’t fly a ship before! It clearly isn’t the case!” His hands moved around to prove his point, almost causing you to burst out laughing. 

“Again with accusing me of lying?” You inquired innocently. 

“No! I’m not-" 

"You just did.” The sniper smirked, enjoying the show. 

Shiny decided to join the troop at this moment, passing its head under Wrecker’s big hand for some pat. Your heart squeezed at the prospect that the tiny baby wouldn’t be around anymore. He was so sweet. 

“But you can’t learn that from the books!”

“I didn’t lie.” You chuckled, your attention back to the discussion. One of your hands found the engineer’s pauldron to calm him down. “I never flew a ship before. Hell, I’ve never used a blaster before! This planet is still using bows and arrows." 

You heard a snort on your right, clearly coming from the grey-haired trooper, but your eyes were fixed to Tech’s who was still trying to get _how the hell you managed to get the hang of flying a ship so quickly_. You were sure it took hours of training to be able to fly to the GAR standards and you knew you didn’t reach these standards. Yet. But it didn’t stop your first performance to be quite good, or so it seemed. 

"You’re right. I read all the books and they couldn’t have prepared me enough.” He nodded, already knowing that he was right, waiting for you to continue with barely contained impatience. 

“Remember the trooper who shared my room for a while? Blast?” You didn’t wait for him to answer your question before getting to the part of his interest. “He’s a gunship pilot. He taught me what to be aware of, what to look for, how to react in what situation, and other stuff." 

You smiled sweetly at his goggled eyes, batting your eyelashes innocently. 

"See? Not a liar. Just resourceful." 

His eyes grew wide in panic, almost making you panic. 

"You blew your cover of being a trained pilot!” Oh. You rolled your eyes in all playfulness, noticing how the rest of the team tensed at his words. 

“ ’m not that dumb Techie.” You resisted the _urge_ to boop his nose in front of everyone. “Told him I was used to starfighters and not gunships. Wasn’t used to the big extra weight behind my ass. He bought it and helped me ‘adjust’.” You finished by making quotation marks in the air, happy to see his face crumble in relief. 

“It’s okay Tech. You’re still the best pilot between the two of us.” You patted his shoulder and got to your feet, a new energy in your steps as you made your way to the back of the ship. 

You looked around for your knife, going to the last place you remember seeing it; the barracks. Only, you found the beds to be totally empty and your knife was unexpectedly nowhere to be seen in the living area too. Maybe one of the boys had it, you thought. Before you went to ask them, it flashed into your mind. You remembered sliding it into the slot at the side of your boot. You lightly hit your forehead with your palm. Oops. You could keep that to yourself.

You heard the boys argue for a bit, Wrecker laughing at the whole exchange, your lips stretching at his contagious joy. They finally settled, the silence making it obvious that their small discussion was over, so you made your way to the door of the ship. 

“All ready to go drop off our lil’ friend.” You announced as they joined you, pressing the button to open the door. 

Tech handed you a small device with a flashing round circle as soon as he was within arms reach. 

“What’s that?” You took the device, turning it around to inspect it. 

“An improved comm link. If by some bad luck we get separated, we’ll still be able to reach you. It is set to our team frequency. Press this button to talk.” He pointed at the no-longer-flashing circular button. 

“So I can’t dirty talk Hunter.” You said in the device, and you could hear your voice echoing from all their helmets under their arms. 

“Definitely not.” He deadpanned, disgusted. Wrecker laughed whole-heartedly, one of his hands slapping the back of your right shoulder that moved forward under his strength, Hunter smirked in your direction with a delicious glint in his eyes while Crosshair rolled his eyes and put his helmet on. 

“Fiiiine.” You fake whined, eyes and head rolling like a kid before inviting them to get off the ship with a movement of your hands presenting them the outside world. “After you, gentlemen." 

Scoffing, Hunter pulled his helmet on and walked down the steps, followed by the rest of the batch. 

"Good job Y/N!” Wrecker eagerly presented you his fist, to which you keenly answered with a hit of your smaller fist. He descended the stairs to regroup with his team. 

Smiling, you noted that they were fully armored, armed and alert, surely not trusting the fauna around to stay at bay. You found that deep inside, it made you feel safer to have them by your side. 

You pocketed the comm link in one of your deepest pockets before following suit, arms wide at your side to bathe in the warmth of the slowly retiring sun while you could. Space, you’d realized, was terribly cold. 

Tall trees reached high in the blue sky, the green grass grew as far as you could see, a warm breeze stroked your face and all in all, you found yourself not relaxing like you expected. You thought that you’d feel better to be in known-ish territory as opposed to a cold military base, but your mind couldn’t find ease. Not even slightly. Maybe it was PTSD following your last experience on Murphy Day. You deeply hoped this was the explanation. 

You made sure that you landed the ship far enough from the Forsian hunting territories and the Waytree, the prospect of meeting one of your peers wasn’t very tempting and if you could avoid meeting another Basilisk, you’d definitely take it. The Marauder was now in wild territory, far enough that even you hadn’t ventured that far in your exploratory trips, about a couple of hours of walk away from your native village, just enough to stay undetected.

You joined the group, smiling at seeing Shiny running into the greenery, glad that at least one of you was happy to be back. 

Wrecker and Crosshair went ahead, closer to the line of trees to search for predators of some sort, their movements frightening small sunbathing Jerboas that fled back into the jungle. 

“We’ll have to do it quick. Can’t be here when the sun’s down.” You informed the sergeant who nodded in understanding. 

Or at least, some understanding. Like everyone else, he must have deduced that this planet was even more dangerous at night. If only he knew to what extends. Or maybe it was best for him not to know. 

“Clear.” Came Crosshair’s voice from your pocket. 

“All cl-” Wrecker started before his sentence finished in a yelp of surprise. 

All at once, four heads turned towards his position, quick enough to see his torso and helmet disappear into the ground. 

'Wrecker!“ You yelled along with Tech, running to where you last saw him, the remaining commandos barely outrunning you. 

"Stop!” Hunter barked, arms extended at his sides to prevent you all to fall off the cliff, cutting your breath for a second when the blaster in his hand hit your chest full force. 

The ground was crumbling under your combined weights, hurrying you to step back from the edge. You dropped on your stomach to redistribute your weight and peer at the open space below. Making sure this time that only your head poked over the edge and nothing else. A hand gripped the back of your shirt in haste, like you would ever decide to throw yourself off a precipice. Again. 

Wrecker sat there on his ass surrounded by trees, passing a hand over his helmet in confusion. You finally took a deep breath in when you registered that he was moving. 

“You okay there?” You yelled with your hands around your mouth, the others replicating your position at your sides to look down, the hand on your back still closed around the fabric. 

“All good.” He looked up, flashing you a thumbs up. 

Bending your head to look under you, your blood ran cold as you took in the really thin plate of ground kept together by roots and nothing else. There were only a very few inches of dirt supporting your bodies, creating a gap between the part of the cliff Wrecker could climb and the edge where you all laid on. 

“He can’t climb up.” You rotated your head to the side at Crosshair’s comment and saw the ground disappearing two clicks further down. You landed on a weird ravine top of some sort. 

Your breathing picked up in pace as the image of the sun licking the top of the trees reached your brain, pushing back to the front of your mind all your survival instinct adapted to the hard life on your planet. 

“We have to get him. Quick.” Your eyes were fixed to the sun, muscles tensed. 

How long before the last rays warmed the ground? How long until you weren’t protected anymore? 45 minutes? A bit less? 

“What’s wrong?” Hunter questioned, bringing you back to the land of the living. He looked worried, maybe it was caused by the panic in your voice. Or the fact that your skin paled significantly in a matter of seconds. Or maybe it was both. 

You got on your knees before bolting toward the line of trees, evading the hand clutched around your shirt to look for a spot where the cliff met your own ground. Yells of your name were muffled by your loud frenetic thoughts, warnings to not stay outside at dusk, stories of what roamed the darkness on the other side of the gigantic fence protecting the village, drawings of terrifying creatures that haunted your nights for years. 

You jumped at the something closing on your shoulder, instinct kicking in to lift your hand to threaten the intruder. You were as surprised at Tech when you saw the hunting knife in your hand, the blade almost pressed against his neck. 

“Calm down!” A sharp order reached your ears as a hand pulled your wrist away from the tender skin. 

“S-sorry Tech.” Your voice shook as much as your hand, your grip tightening around the handle of the blade. 

“What’s wrong? Talk to us!” Hunter ordered again, invading your line of sight. 

“We have to be gone before dusk. We can’t survive a night outside.” You rushed, eyes lifting to the darkening sky between the leaves. 

“Why?” He pressed, tension building. 

“We are losing time! We have 20 minutes tops to find him and all get our way back to the ship.” You turned around to continue your search of a way to get to your teammate. 

“What happens at dusk?” Tech inquired, joining your sides and matching your quick pace. 

“They come out, Tech.” You whispered, almost scared to say it out loud in fear that they would appear at their mention. 

“What’s 'they’?” Crosshair grumbled, completely done with your nonsense. He seemed unbothered, but you knew your stress was affecting him too, his gun at the ready was secured in a tight grip while his helmet scanned the trees meticulously. 

“Apex predators.” You shuddered, the drawing of an Algax invading your mind. 

You noticed Shiny wandering a bit farther ahead, his horns illuminating a couple of Furants watching the group closely. The feline-like owls were perched on low branches, the green light reflecting over their dark feathers and four legs armed with sharp talons. Their ears and eyes followed your movements, their tail intertwined to keep the other close. 

They flew away in silence when Wrecker’s voice boomed from your comm link. 

“I hear weird laughs all around.” He sounded worried, some of said laughs could be heard in the background. 

As if this situation wasn’t already bad! You definitely could have done without Wrecker being surrounded by a pack of vicious opportunist predators.

“Shoot 'em! Check in the trees!” You rushed out. “They’ll try to surround you, you can’t let them. Run if need be, they’re not that fast.” You glanced down the edge and huffed in annoyance when it still wasn’t close enough to let you jump down to help him. 

“We have to get to him!” You heard the first blaster bolts just below to your right, meaning that Wrecker foolishly ventured the jungle alone on his side when the others started running after you. 

“Wrecker. Continue running North. We’ll meet at some point.” Hunter ordered. 

“Got that!" 

You jumped over dead trunks, roots and dense patches of tall grass, slalomed between the trees disturbing the small animals tending to their daily routine of surviving the harsh environment and ignored the yelps of Tech tripping over something. 

"Don’t shoot that!” You yelled, pointing to the big moss-covered lizard currently digging the ground before you, rushing past it without a care. He barely acknowledged your passage, staying focussed on his task. 

You passed too much time running to your liking, but it all paid off when a very tall tree almost reached your ground level. It was a couple of feet too short, but it definitely was enough for you to jump down to the thick branches below. The top ones weren’t strong enough, breaking beneath your feet and scratching your arms slightly. Soon, you reached the level where the wood became thick enough to sustain your weight. You plunged your knife into the trunk to slow down your fall to allow you to grab a branch without dislocating your shoulder and quickly made your way down. 

You heard your name from above, but ignored it. They could make it on their own. Or at least you hoped. 

You heard Wrecker before you saw him, the high pitch snickers and whoops following him closely. He shot some bolts behind him but continued running forward like Hunter ordered him to. He passed below you, not seeing you in the tree but stopped when he heard something fall on the ground behind him. 

You had plunged your knife into one of the Rideat following the clone, stabbing him near the neck as soon as he jumped on your branch to continue its course. It lost balance at the pain, propelling the both of you to the ground. 

You jumped to your feet in milli-seconds, already expertly jumping away from its long clawed prehensile fingers to stab it in the neck. It screeched in pain, jerking it’s dangerously powerful back legs forward to push you away and claw at your flesh in the same movement. 

You jumped back and Wrecker used the moment to shoot at the agonizing beast. Groans and grunts resonated all around, brown flashes moving from trees to trees. With your back to Wrecker’s, you analyzed their pattern, lifted your hand and threw your knife to where you were sure the brown Rideat would jump next. Its body hit the ground, stunning it long enough for the trooper to shoot it down. 

With snarls, the others retreated, leaving the scene as swiftly as they came. 

“Those things are ugly!” Wrecker let out when you pulled your knife out of the canine-bat’s shoulder. 

“They are." 

You pushed the body with your foot, cautious of any movement on its end, they were known to fake dead after all. Its long front legs were motionless just like its smaller back legs. 

When it’s large sensitive protrusions on its scapulas didn’t move, you allowed yourself to breathe. 

"You okay?” You turned to Wrecker who lifted its helmet to wear it as a hat. 

“Yes! Thanks to you, _cabur'ika_!" 

You frowned at the new nickname. You opened your mouth to ask what it meant when troopers rained from above, landing on their feet like the perfect elite commandos that they were. You were actually surprised that they didn’t fall all the way down with their armor. 

"They’re gone.” You informed them, almost snorting at their weapons moving along the trees. 

“You sure?” Hunter stayed focused on his surroundings. 

“100%. They’re opportunist cowards. Always flee when they realize the prey is too strong.” You pushed Wrecker’s arm playfully at your last word. 

“What’s that?” Tech asked, crouched next to one of the bodies. 

“A Rideat.” You looked above, trying to discern the sky above the clouds of leaves but failing miserably as this part of the jungle was way too dense. “I’ll describe later. We should get back up and leave." 

Unfortunately, the tree was too short for you all to get back up there, so you had to walk further into the jungle to find a way up. This ravine must have a climbable spot somewhere. It had to. 

Each passing second put you more and more on edge, sharpening your senses and reflexes. You heard the pounding of several Jerboas running to safety around you, a young single Loth wolf passed right next to your group, running towards its den. 

You’d spent too much time walking, running and fighting. You were late. Too late. The sun was down and the diurnal animals fled to their secure home to pass the night. Preys and predators alike. 

"We have to follow it!” You yelled, sprinting after the Loth wolf. Maybe it would lead you to a suitable shelter. _Please, please, please._

Desperately, you tried to keep sight of it. Running at your fastest, you took every turn it did, jumped every mud puddle it did, but in the end, its four legs were too fast for the two of yours. 

You lost him for a second. It was a second too much. Your blood ran cold when you lost sight it, but you soon spotted the small crack in the rock where it sneaked in to find shelter. 

“No. Nononononono.” You shook your head, eyes widening as fear traveled through your body like fire. 

The fissure was too small for _anyone_ to slip in. You were stuck out past daylight. Too far from the ship and too far from the nearest village.

“Stop running off.” Hunter grumbled, joining your side. 

You were on the verge of hyperventilating, too much blood was flooding your head, pins poked your fingers, the quick beating in your skull almost made you dizzy. 

“Can’t be out at night. Can’t.” You whispered, reciting the fundamentals of your previous years of survival. “Never leave the village alone. Don’t forget your weapon. Return home before dusk.”

You had failed. You’d die. You’d die like everyone else that ventured the night. You’d given yourself a death sentence without even returning to the village. How dumb-

“Y/N!” You were shook back and forth for a moment, trying to get you to focus. 

“Calm your breathing. Now!” You heard the order, it was distant and muffled, but you heard it. It was only then that you regained feelings of your own body and forced your erratic lungs to slower their pace. 

Your vision cleared, the sounds in your head vanished, the ringing in your ears faded, your fingers flexed to regain full feeling in them. You were alive. Still alive. _Not for lo-_

“Good.” You blinked at Crosshair, his worried gaze moving over your face like you’d scared him. As if. 

“We have to find shelter.” You told them, coming back from your panic attack. Body leaning on the sniper’s hand on your shoulder for stability. 

“Remember I told you guys that Fors feeds on beliefs and basically make them real?” You didn’t wait for an answer. “Now what are common beliefs at night?" 

"Monsters.” Crosshair deadpanned, eyes reduced to slit. He must think you went downright crazy.

“Blood-thirsty man-eating monsters.” You specified to their horror. 


	2. Trial by Fire

“Something happened.” One of the members spoke up, addressing the problem from his position at the end of the long table. “The planet is angry again." 

"Why would they come back now?” Another asked, finger nervously tapping at his tight. 

The man leading the council took a second, to release the armchair from his deadly grip, allowing blood to return to his white fingertips. 

“We all know how it started.” He didn’t know why they were back, but he certainly knew who was the cause. 

Whispers erupted from the dozen of people sitting at the table, accusations, hateful exclamations, worried questions, they all blended in a cacophony that beat at the leader’s growing headache. 

“Enough.” He barked, effectively bringing silence back into the closed room. 

“She’s back and we need to find her. Send half of our available hunters into the jungle for a retrieval mission. No one is allowed back in until _she’s_ here.”

“But Arlan,” the head of the scouts paused, unsure of his own next words, “she’s dead." 

No one dared to breathe, in fear that they may be chosen to venture the darkness away from the village’s protection if they dared to make a sound to disturb the stillness of the room. 

"Apparently not.” Arlan growled, frustrated that the thorn in his side was back. 

____________________

You took a deep breath in to calm your buzzing nerves, they couldn’t control you right now, not when everyone’s lives, your family, was in danger. They needed you strong and in control, something you hoped you could be long enough to get the whole group to safety. It was your only chance. You had your instincts, they were sharp and trustworthy so you had to rely on them and not let panic overflow again. 

You exhaled slowly, wiggling your fingers and toes to relax every inch of yourself. You could do it. You were an experienced hunter in these jungles and they were highly trained commandos with a flawless success rate. Let’s not forget the fact that they had _blasters_. You were good with your knife, but it clearly wasn’t the best weapon out there. Maybe the odds were in your favor. 

But they were used to droids, not unpredictable monsters that loved to tear beings apart limb by limb. Tonight would be your trial by fire. For all of you. 

“We need to be ready to meet them.” You cracked your knuckles unconsciously, already picturing yourself in front of one of your nightmares. 

You acknowledged Hunter’s comment with a nod, already walking to the nearest tree to stab it with your knife and insert your loyal tap into the hole.

“We all drink before it’s no longer possible. It’s gonna be a long night and this is our last chance to do it.” You pointed to Wrecker. “You first." 

He obeyed in a beat, trusting your survival skills. You knew you’d need all the energy available and the sugary water would provide you just that. Also, you needed to be as hydrated as possible. 

"Okay.” You turned towards the rest of them, all their visors fixated on you. “So, I don’t know much about them. There are different species that are common beliefs in my village and other species that are proper to other villages. But they all have in common to eat whatever cross their path and to roam solely at night." 

Wrecker moved away from the tree, wiping his mouth with his wrist to make place for Tech who removed his helmet to drink. 

"This planet is a trap.” The grey-haired clone grumbled at your unhelpful lack of information. 

“I know, I’ve lived here my whole life.” You glared at him before concentrating again. “No one in my village ever came back from a night outside, so I don’t know for sure what species are around. All I know is that there are Algax roaming around.”

You signaled to Cross to take Tech’s place. 

“They are taaaall creature, with dark blue-ish skin and really long arms and legs. They are shy,” you gesticulated your hands around to find the right word, but couldn’t find it so you went with the first word that came to your mind, “things that tend to hide along the trees and grab their prey when they don’t look. They don’t eat the prey, just crush it to death and let it there for the other things." 

You were losing time fast, the jungle was darkening with each passing minute and you were far from ready. There was too much to cover and so little time. Plus, there was the fact that what you knew wasn’t 100% reliable. Beliefs change from people to people, from village to village, who knows what version of the stories these beasts really came from?

"And they’re super sneaky and silent. Hunter your turn.” You announced a tad too dryly, but no one called you out on it, maybe because they were as on edge as you were, mentally preparing themselves for what was to come as best as they could considering they didn’t really know _what_ was to come. 

“I’ll do this quick so listen. And Tech, listen _really really_ carefully. Rule number one, if you see a light, something cute, something scary, hear a sound or hear your name being called, you. Do. _Not_. Follow it." 

"They know our names?” Tech’s hands stopped mid-air, his helmet almost back on his head, eyes wide in surprise. 

“The planet hears us talk. Of course they know.” You almost rolled your eyes at the stupid question coming from the team’s genius. _Ears everywhere duuh._

“Rule number two, don’t eat or drink anything from now on. Can’t have one of us puke their guts or get poisoned or paralyzed.” Out of the corner of your eyes, you clearly saw a shiver shake the sniper’s body. Lesson learned. 

“Number three, if I say run, you all _run_. In the same direction would be best, but if it comes down to it, you run and don’t stop. We’ll regroup afterward. You have trackers on us, right?" 

"If you keep your comlink on you, yes.” You patted your pockets in reflex, hand closing around the small object to confirm its presence and alleviate your concerns. 

“Last rule, if I do this,” the index, middle and ring finger of your free-hand closed to let only your thumb and pinky pointing to the ground, “you have to hide, absolutely _don’t_ run. Hide. Some of them are guided by movements and you’ll only attract them." 

"Hide? But we can blast ‘em!” Wrecker’s enthusiasm didn’t affect you this time around. It was a first. 

“ ’m just no sure they’ll stop moving if you do. Best to make our way around unnoticed." 

He grumbled his disappointment at having to be silent, it never has been his _forte_. Plus, he had the added difficulty to hide his imposing stature, so this would be a challenge. Thankfully their armors were almost entirely black, would they have been the usual white with color stripes, it certainly would have been even more difficult to blend in with the vegetation. 

It felt weird giving them orders, like you were totally out of place. And in a sense you were. The newbie wasn’t supposed to command the trained soldiers. The newbie followed behind and shut its mouth. 

Well, at least that’s what you’ve always been told and that’s what you’ve always done. It was no use to fight with the other hunters. They were a group of dickheads that deserved hell, but they had more muscles than you. And they were outnumbering. Aaand they were watching each other’s back, whereas you were alone without any backup. All that being said, it didn’t stop you from making them pay for their hurtful words, harsh treatments, condescending tones and constant bullying, one way or the other. 

For the first time, people let you lead them and it was unsettling. A part of your mind waited for the inevitable low blow to hit you square in the face. You knew the commandos weren’t like that, but you couldn’t help it. It was a defensive reflex you developed over the years of trying to fit in a world that you were too different to live in. It was totally foreign to be listened to and not berated down, it felt good and terrifying at the same time. 

"Understood?” Your voice softened into an unsure tone, its once imperativeness melted under the weight of your anxiety of being listened to. 

One after the other, they all nodded, gazes full of determination and something else that almost made you sweat. They all showed their trust in you, even Crosshair who you thought didn’t like you much, offered you his trust. It meant way too much and stressed you beyond measure. You couldn’t let them down and have them killed. Any single one of them. 

Nodding in return, you walked to the tap beside Hunter and forced yourself to swallow the water, pushing down the lump that formed in your throat. You could do it. You could survive the night if you played your cards right. With your knowledge and their excellent combat skills surely you could defend yourselves. Right?

“Blasters ready gentlemen. We have to find a shelter as quickly as possible.” You removed the tap from the tree and hid it back into a pocket. 

“A den should be alright or a small cave." 

With one last look at the four of them, you noded to yourself. 

"Good night, good luck.” You told them as per habit and hope that the saying would somehow protect you all. Your usual joking self was nowhere to be seen, letting you wear a mask of complete seriousness.

They tensed, apparently getting on the fact that this was an important custom on this planet. 

“Good night, good luck.” They repeated, one after the other, causing you to smile tightly at the gesture. 

You took North, continuing away from the ship and into unknown territory. You knew that after a while you’d eventually fall into Forsians hunting territories and then you’d have a better knowledge of the terrain, but those parts of the jungle were still hours away. Hopefully, you’ll be able to climb up and make your way back to the ship before getting there. 

“Will you be alright to walk in the dark?” Crosshair’s voice erupted from your pocket and you knew this wouldn’t work. Each time they’d speak the whole jungle would hear. 

“I’ll be fine. Like I said, the best mutate to survive.” You winked at the white crosshair on the sniper’s helmet. “I can see in the dark. Not full 10/10 on the chart, but enough so I won’t ram into a tree.”

You fished the comlink out of your pocket and showed it to Tech who was rummaging around in his utility belt pockets.

“Can’t have it screaming my position every time someone spea-" 

"I know.” He cut you off, presenting you an earpiece.

“This will do.” He took your device to connect them together, or so you think. “There. You’ll hear us through the earpiece but you still need the comlink to talk." 

He gave you back the electronics and you quickly put the earbud on, comlink returning to your satisfyingly deep pocket. 

"Thanks. We should continue to follow the ravine and hope that we can climb it at some point and return to the ship." 

Agreements resonated in your right ear and you got on your way. It got darker and darker until the only colors you could see were different shades of blue and black. 

The silence around was nerve-wracking, every tree seemed like it would turn around and jump at you at each and every step you took. 

It was nice to quickly fall back in your old habits, feet barely making a sound, eyes recognizing every scratches and marks on the trees let by multiple species marking their territories; Dire bears, Lacergans, Fu-

You almost jumped at the low rumbling whisper right in your ear. Thankfully, your scream stayed in your mind and the only thing jumping was your heartbeat. 

"Movement ahead.” You couldn’t hear shit, but you trusted Hunter’s heightened senses. 

You stopped, the boys getting into their shooting positions at your sides. You could do it. 

“Smell like death.” Hunter added with a grunt of displeasure. 

The new information registered like a cold bath, freezing every muscle in your body. The ice-cold bath that just fell over your head paralyzed any transfer of information between the neurons in your brain, leaving you totally helpless for a whole second. Your brain was still out of service when your body just moved on its own, already knowing what to do despite the lack of orders from above. 

The three middle fingers of your free hand closed, letting only your thumb and pinky pointing to the ground, clearly informing the clones of the course of action. Thankfully, all their gazes got attracted by your moving hand, immediately changing the formation. 

Twiggs broke a bit to the right, still far enough for you to dodge behind a tree undetected, soon joined by Tech who as opposed to you, faced the tree. His chest plate pushed on your torso to get closer to the tree, one of his blasters raised right next to your head, the other grazing your upper arm, caging you in a position that would be extremely hot in totally different circumstances and with a totally different clone. 

At the corner of your eyes, you thankfully noticed Wrecker’s imposing form hiding as best as he could behind a particularly thick bush, Hunter standing behind a tree next to him, weapon pointed towards the sky above. Crosshair was nowhere to be seen, so you hoped it meant he found a good spot. 

Rustling leaves and moving grass made you freeze completely. No one moved as the footsteps got nearer and nearer. Of course, _this_ was the first creature you’d encounter. Kribats were the worst creature one could run into. 

They were told to feast on human flesh like there was no tomorrow. They were starved, walking the jungle every night in hope of biting down on some stupidly brave human who ventured the night, but these times were rare nowadays. Almost no one got out at night, reinforcing their desperation for human blood.

It was told that they could paralyze you in fear at simply one glance to their wicked red eyes, allowing the beast to pound on its victims and take their life. It wasn’t clear how it killed its preys, but all the versions were unanimous, it was a bloodbath. 

Fors really seemed to _hate_ the Bad Batch. 

If it wasn’t enough that the most dangerous monster was hot on your asses, Tech’s recording light flashed to life, illuminating your position and burning your retina like a mighty beacon. With a fast but careful movement, you reached around his arm encasing your body into the tree to cover the red traitorous light. 

Blinking the tears away, you really hoped your glare got the message perfectly clear to the engineer. _Forget about your hobby for **one** night, you dumbass!_

The rustling grass behind Hunter’s tree stopped your breathing, all senses focussed on the beast’s movements to know if it detected your group or not. 

Tech’s eyes visibly widen behind his visor at the ungodly sight of the creature’s emaciated body, the skull of a cervid posed atop a male human body rivaling Wrecker’s height was disturbing, but not as disturbing as the sight of all the _blood_ covering its dark skin. There was so much blood that it pooled at its feet, leaving behind a river-like path in the grass. 

The low ragged rumble of the monster passed your tree, surprising you that he hadn’t bounced on it to grab you from behind. You glanced at its retreating form and _oh this is new_. Your version of a Kribat didn’t have a feathery tail trailing behind. Now, what could this be useful for? They couldn’t fly, could they? 

The Kribat wandered deeper into the depth of the jungle, leaving its imprint on everyone’s mind as well as on the jungle floor and all your noses and mouths. 

You waited for a little longer, just to be sure that it was far enough to not catch its attention before nodding to Tech. 

“Clear.” He whispered through the comm. 

The first breath you took in almost pulled you to your knees. The smell was atrocious, grabbing you at your throat. Decomposition, blood, acids, they all mixed to form a rancid smell that you could almost taste. 

“What in the Nine Corellian Hells is that?” Crosshair stood from behind a dead trunk on the ground to join everyone at the dark trail. 

“Human blood, flesh and organs.” The shredded pieces of meat here and there turned your stomach upside down. 

You were used to flesh and blood. Heck. You were a hunter and often butched your meals yourself. But this flesh was human and the state of it only left you to imagine was it must have felt like to be ripped apart. You didn’t want to speculate if the victim was alive or not when it happened. 

“Kribats are craving human flesh but they don’t have a digestive system. It gets in and gets out, so they’re never satiated." 

"So this one just ate?” Wrecker approached behind you. Now faced with what these beasts were capable of, his enthusiasm disappeared somewhere, letting him wary and if only a little bit scared. 

“It looks like it.” You fixed the blood, deep in thoughts. Why were there humans out tonight? 

“I thought no one was supposed to be out at night.” Tech inquired while disconnecting the red light on his helmet. 

“They’re not supposed to be. It means that something’s wrong.” You sighed. Tonight couldn’t get any better. The planet was throwing a tantrum. 

There was nothing you could do about it, so you focussed back on the present. You swallowed to keep yourself from puking as you dropped to your knees before the red river. 

“And what are you doing?” Crosshair asked, not daring to approach the thing himself. 

“Camouflaging my smell of a juicy living being.” With shaky hands, you plunged your fingers through the sticky mixture. You gaged at the feeling but covered your sleeves nonetheless. 

“You guys should cover your armor too. Lucky bastards.” At least it wouldn’t touch their skin. 

“No way.” Crosshair groaned as Tech walked over asking “Why?" 

"Because I want us to survive the night.” You deadpanned. There was no time to explain the how and why. 

You stopped breathing for a second to cover your torso and pants, cringing at the warm wetness soaking the fabric. You allowed yourself a second to mourn your once perfect clothes that you loved so much. You’d have to burn them after only one day wearing them. 

At your sides the boys reluctantly followed your lead, grunting in disgust every two seconds. 

You decided to forget your face, this would end badly for your stomach. 

Turning around as you wiped your hands on a clean spot on your pants, you noticed Hunter’s clean body leaning on a tree for support, head tilted down with a hand over his heart. You didn’t need to be a Jedi to feel his distress at the overwhelmingly nauseating smell. 

“You okay?” His visor lifted to meet your eyes at your worry. You controlled yourself and refrained from pulling him in a hug, you’d only make it worse. 

“Yeah.” But he sounded far from okay. 

“We have to continue, but if you stay close, we all should be able to hide your smell without rolling you into the stuff.” He grunted in agreement. 

Tech, Crosshair and Wrecker joined your sides, covered in the mixture. 

“Okay. We continue." 

Hoping that your sergeant would get used to the smell, you took the lead once more. You didn’t know if his mutation would allow his brain to stop registering the smell after a couple of minutes like everyone else. You mentally crossed your fingers for him. 

The trees seemed taller into the dead of night. The occasional moon rays passing through the leaves made the heavy ambiance slightly more bearable. 

You wondered what a night outside looked like on another planet where no monsters crept their way around. Where you could lay down and watch the stars, not through a tiny crack in the rock like you used to in your village and fully admire the high sky, illuminated by a sea of sparkling orbs. You deeply wanted to experience it with your team who would definitely think you stupidly simple. 

But they would understand. After tonight, they would. 

Your progression was steady for a while, every ears and eyes were focussed around to detect any unwanted creature lurking in the shadows. 

Back to his collected usual self, Hunter finally seemed used to the smell plaguing his nose. To add to the good news, you spotted a mature tree, particularly large. At first glance, it looked like it reached the top of the ravine.

Excitement flooded your veins, a hand lifting to stop the group who tensed in alert. 

"I think this one could get us up.” You whispered to them, pointing at the tree.

“It definitely could.” Tech scanned the tree, the others still watching the surroundings. 

“I’ll go check.” You broke away from the formation to get to the closest branch. 

“Wait-” A hand caught your upper arm. 

“Hunter, I’m the best climber here. Plus, you guys will make too much sound for a recon with your armor. I’ll make it quick.” Your determined eyes met his visor, not willing to get back on your position. 

“Be careful.” He released you to position his team around the tree. 

You send him a quick salute before pulling yourself up the tree. You kept your knife in one hand and climbed up several branches. The next one was pretty high, too high for you to reach it without jumping. Your knife found its home at the side of your boot and you focussed on your jump. Crouching slightly, you suddenly extended your legs and pushed with considerable force. Both hands grabbed the top of the desired branch before letting your biceps do the rest of the work. 

“Are you okay?” Hunter called through the comm. 

Leaning on the trunk, you reached in your pocket to retrieve the communication device. 

“Yeah, had to jump to continue. Think I’m almost at the top. I’ll be down soon.” You answered, looking up to the thinning branches where more moonlight pierced the darkness. 

“Copy that." 

Your comm returned to your pocket to free your hands. Up. Up. Up. In the same minute, you made it to the top. The moon was still low, not fully visible above the line of trees obstructing your vision. 

Now, you noticed that the edge of the damn ravine seemed barely close enough for you to jump there. Maybe Wrecker could throw you there. But how would _he_ reach the top? Checking under the edge, the lack of roots keeping the ground stable was highly disappointing. Even if you were to jump all the way there, the chance of the dirt crumbling under your fingers was too high. 

Quickly, you grabbed your comm to let the boys know that you were coming back. 

With a grumble, you started to descend, moving gracefully from branch to branch without making a sound. The gap you jumped looked pretty big from above, causing you to hesitate for the shortest of seconds. The need to get down was more pressing than your unease so you braced yourself and pushed yourself off your perch to the one below. 

You landed perfectly, both feet on the hard surface, hands wrapped around it tightly to not move further. 

For a second, you were perfectly stable. The next you were falling through the air, propelled by the body hitting you full force. Wood painfully came in contact with your shoulders, arms and back, emptying your lungs before a scream could escape your lips.


	3. Rock Bottom

The vice grips around your upper arms burned as the talons cut through the fabric and tore through the skin. The humanoid creature hissed in pain when your bodies switched position and he got the worst of the branches. Soon, you found yourself falling on top of the Algax, out of breath and _in pain_. 

It quickly rolled over, throwing you to the ground right under itself. You heard yells and saw lights illuminating your surroundings, but more importantly, you saw the eyeless, noseless face mere centimeters from your face, the hideous lining that you thought was its mouth looked burned and sewn shut as if to prevent it from feeding on its prey. 

You would have been relieved of the fact if the pain in your arms hadn’t moved to your whole torso. _He was crushing you to death_! 

Out of your daze, you trashed around, feet kicking what would be its chest, attempting to push it away. Screeches erupted from tiny slits at the side of its hectically rotating head, the Algax abruptly jerked away from the ground, your body still in its grip. It started moving away from the clones, unbothered by the blaster bolts hitting its back successively or by your movements. 

Orders were barked in your ear but they didn’t register. All you could acknowledge was the building pressure around your bones, how it was becoming almost impossible to breathe even the tiniest of breath. You were positive that your ribs would start to break at any second now. 

The primal part of your brain then took over, reaching for your knife and plunging it forward in the dark blue arm holding you above ground. 

The effect was instantaneous. You were thrown like a rag doll to the side, right into a trunk. The thud of your head hitting the wood resonated through your skull, stilling you. Your whole body seemed to completely stop functioning for a whole second before remembering that this wasn’t the time to chill out. 

A moan nearly escaped your mouth as the first satisfying breath of the last minute filled your lungs. How could you never realize that breathing felt so _right_? Breathing felt so good. So much better than being squished like a miserable insect. Oh no. Was this how they felt every time you’d step on them? This was so crue-

“Are you okay?” Confused, you blinked at Tech’s question. 

“Me?” You pointed to yourself as if the question wasn’t clear enough. 

Then the pain in your arms registered and-

“ _Holy mother fucker_ that hurts!” You whined, experimentally poking the bleeding skin to see if this really was the source of the pain. 

“Don’t touch it!” Tech chastised, slapping your hand away, to which you glared in return. 

“I’ll die of a blood disease.” You pouted, watching as your wound touched the disgusting bloody mix you spread on your clothes earlier. 

“Highly possible.” You felt the color leaving your face. Maybe you said it, but you didn’t want it! 

“But we won’t let that happen.” You jumped at the gauze tightening around your wound unexpectedly, your opposed hand almost shooting out to hit him instinctively. 

“That was an Algax, correct?” Hunter approached behind Tech, keeping an eye on the surroundings while the engineer fixed your other arm. 

“Spot on. He ran away, right?” The dark blue monster was nowhere to be seen, not that it bothered you. 

“Right after you stabbed him.” He handed you your knife that you apparently dropped at some point. “Look like those things are blaster proof or something." 

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there’s no blaster in the lore.” You gladly took the life-saving weapon back, securing its handle in your grip where it belonged. 

“Does your head hurt?” Tech inquired, getting up when he was satisfied with the makeshift bandages. 

“Nope. All good.” It was pounding in there, but whatever. 

Getting back on your feet with Tech’s help, you took a second to stabilize yourself before giving a heart attack to the nerd. 

“Don’t do that!” He yelped, catching everyone’s attention on your stretching self. 

“I’m just stretching…" 

"You just hurt your back! Don’t flex your spine like that!” He successfully got you back straight with a slap to your abdomen. 

“We have to leave.” Crosshair cut you off, pushing between the both of you to get ahead. 

“I agree with Cross. No more fuss.” You speed-walked to catch up to the abrasive clone, desperately trying to keep the laugh in at the rhyme. 

“Thanks for that.” You whispered to him, eyes already moving from shadow to shadow. 

“Don’t thank me. If you stretch again I’ll make your life more miserable than it already is.” Oh how this only made you want to stretch to push his buttons. 

“Can’t make it miserable if that means you’ll be around.” You grinned, unabashed by the meaning of your words. It was time for him to warm up to you a little more.

Every second of silence made you cheer inside. Rending the snarky sniper speechless was an exploit after all. 

“I can figure something out.” He countered weakly after a while. 

Chuckling, you rotated the handle of your knife between your skilled fingers, alternating it from pointing forward and backward to pass your sudden regain of energy. Why did he have such an effect on you? It still was a mystery that you’d have to elucidate later. 

“I hear a voice.” Hunter informed the group. 

“Is it calling you?” This was never a good sign, the Venuste were really effective critters in their task of enchanting everyone around. Keeping him with you and away from them would necessitate Wrecker’s muscles. 

“No, it’s a kid’s voice. Whining about flee- fleeing? Something like that. It’s not clear." 

"A kid?” You stopped dead, deeply confused. Had the council gone mad?! What could possibly justify sending kids out to their death? Or did they get caught outside like you did? “Where?" 

"Sure it’s not a trap?” He pointed over your shoulder to your right. 

“One way to be sure.” It genuinely hurt to stay in position and not speed walk through the trees to verify if the council had gone from a bunch of imbeciles to a cohort of assholes running the whole village to their doom. 

You had to remind yourself that when you agreed to join the commandos, you’d made a promise to fight for them as well as with them and that you’d be a reliable asset at any time in any given situation. You weren’t alone anymore. 

It didn’t change the fact that it was hard. 

“It’s personal?” Crosshair clearly saw the shift in your mood, from the tightness in your muscles that wasn’t there before to the sudden lack of motion of your armed hand. 

“I just want to know if I’ll break my hand again or not." 

"Break your hand?" 

The question passed over your head when you heard the young boy’s voice. He wasn’t from the village, you knew every kid there mainly because you liked to help them build traps for strangers to fall in and they liked your prank ideas. You didn’t know how to tell Tech that you were the one to propose the phosphorescent bird poo mixed with loth wolf puke idea. Maybe it was better to take it to your grave. 

You halted at the edge of the clearing illuminated by the moon and its stars, eyes glued to the young boy walking in circle a couple of meters away, his bare feet bleeding profusely from the incessant walking he endured for who knew how long. Your heart squeezed at his fate. No one deserved this kind of torture, let alone an innocent child. 

Your eyes adjusted to the new light, a new serene pallet of color taking over the gradually fading shades of blue and black. 

The boy’s clothes were torn up and dirty to a point where you couldn’t say for sure what color it was initially or if there was a design on it like most children liked to wear nowadays. 

"What’s wrong with him?” Wrecker’s worry hit you in the gut. You shouldn’t have to tell him this because this shouldn’t exist. 

“He’s a Wanderer, now. A Lumsin got his soul.” You slumped, defeated. 

“His soul?” He tilted his head and although you couldn’t see it, you were sure there was a frown hidden under the customized helmet. 

“Yes. Everyone has a soul and Lumsins feed on them. When they eat a soul, the body becomes lost and wander around, walking and walking until it dies." 

"His soul got eaten.” He reiterated in a whisper, the hand lifting to his head not lost on you.

“Y-” Your heartbeat shot through the roof when your eyes found a crest necklace around the kid’s neck. 

You knew that crest all too well. And those beautiful red hairs, they should have made you realize sooner. Way sooner. 

“I know him.” It unconsciously escaped your lips before you leaped forward, not able to repress your urges anymore. 

Crosshair was hot on your tail, the others staying in the shadows to keep an eye out. 

You jumped before the boy, hands rising to his cold cheeks, wishing that the gesture would pull him out of his spell. He merely rammed into you with his small 6 years old emaciated body, barely making you budge. 

He continuously mumbled the same sentence, the last thought his body heard from his soul before the contact was lost. 

“I want Fleena.”

“Nixon, buddy.” You grazed the freckles on his cheeks with your thumbs. He was so familiar. 

You’d never met him when he was still a lively boy, their village wasn’t one to be in close contact with the others, but you’ve seen extremely detailed drawings of him. Plus, he looked so much like his sister. 

“We have to go.” Crosshair pressed, anxious to be so out in the open. You knew you were being delusional and were basically putting him in danger for someone who couldn’t be saved, but you had something to do. 

“I’ll be quick.” You assured the sniper before taking the robin carved necklace off Nixon’s small neck to store it in your pants pocket. 

“Your sis’ loves you very much, Nixon.” You tenderly kissed his forehead like any child should be kissed, with utter softness and care. “And she wants you to be free." 

You could easily remember the nights out between the local cantina and the general store, where Fleena would show you drawings of the beasts that attacked her village when their gates got breached. You were terrified. Her whole village was wiped out in a single night, leaving her behind with a mind plagued with nightmares and grief. 

She talked often about Nixon who had turned 6 the week before it happened. She would relive her best moments with him, where laughs and smiles were a common occurrence. Then she’d close on herself, praying to the merciless gods above to at least let her brother be in peace. 

It broke your heart to know that it wasn’t the case. That he was still trapped, may his soul be somewhere else, hopefully, in a better world, his body was still living in a wicked world. 

"You deserve to rest Nixon.” You ruffled his hair like Fleena used to do. 

With a quick movement of your hands, you freed him from his torment in this cruel world. 

The world numbed for a moment, mind blocking the events for your own sanity, but it wasn’t enough. It didn’t stop all the injustice of this world. A vast beautiful world that you couldn’t explore because of monsters waiting for the right moment to bounce. You were forced to live in a cage when the world was so vast. Kids were forced to grow up too fast or couldn’t grow up at all. This world was sick. 

It took 2 hours for your stomach to empty itself on the ground for the first time of the night. In all honesty, it was longer than you initially expected. 

_Oh_. You didn’t expect either to find yourself back into the woods, without any memory of making the way back. Hands alternate from patting your back to stroking up and down between your scapulas. 

Someone’s tears fell onto the bile, or maybe it was raining. Yes, it was raining. You felt the water stream down your cheeks like rivers, the two trails joining at your chin to fall on the ground. 

“You freed him.” Crosshair crouched to your level so you’d not tune him out like you did the others. “You helped him." 

"I helped him.” You repeated. It was true. 

“You did.” A finger moved across your cheek to remove the remaining rain from your face. No. They were tears. Your tears of pain. 

“I hate to force this on you, but we have to get back to the rav-" 

A scream of distress pierced the night, cutting off the sergeant in the worst way possible. Everyone froze, listening to the yells asking for help that only you understood. Another hunter. He wasn’t that far away. 

"He’s asking for help.” You mumbled slowly coming out of your daze. 

Your eyes moved away from the bile splattered before your knees to meet the black and white helmet of your sergeant. You were in no position to decide, the fog in your mind only beginning to dissipate gradually. 

“We can’t help.” The requests for assistance had already morphed into screams of pain and agony that they didn’t need to be translated to understand. 

“We hurry back and get off this rock.” He cut short, the yells fading quickly in intensity. 

Hands under your armpits helped you up. Shaky legs stilled after a couple of seconds and a few deep breaths. Slowly as if you’d double over at any second, Wrecker’s huge hands let go of their grip on you. With a muttered thanks you harshly wiped your face with your hands to get yourself together. 

You needed to bottle up every event happening tonight for later. You’d have time to scream, thrash around and cry when you’d be safe within the Havoc Marauder. 

“Ready.” You affirmed after swallowing the lump in your throat. 

The night was silent again, meaning that the beast could either be feasting or roaming around again. The group will have to be extra careful to return to the ravine and stay under the radar. Many species could have caused this kind of screams and they weren’t to be messed with. 

Hunter took the front while you took his place in the middle, just behind him. Crosshair grazed your right arm, Tech your left and Wrecker got your back. 

You purposefully ignored the worried glances coming from Tech, it surely must have been a shock to see you do what you did in the clearing. It was so out of nowhere for them. But it wasn’t for you. A big part of your brain simply wished they would not abandon you on the planet once you all make it back to the ship. 

This time, you were the first one to notice the change in the atmosphere. What was interpreted by Hunter as the wind humming through the trees was in fact a very angry Kribat protecting its territory. 

“Hide!” You whispered harshly in the comlink you hurriedly pulled out of your pocket. There was no way they’d see your hand sign at your current position. 

It was so sudden that they stopped for a millisecond, unsure of where to hide. You pushed through them to lead the way to a deeper line of trees on your left, feet moving faster to get more distance between the Kribat and your group. 

Your feet slipped under yourself when you ducked behind a particularly large tree. Despite your best efforts to stay upright, gravity pulled you down to your fall, as it clearly _enjoyed_ to do, both physically and mentally. 

The ground wasn’t as hard as you remembered, a bit soft if you were to define it, and warmer. 

It wasn’t until Wrecker pulled you upright once again that you realized that your fall had been broken by a shredded body. Dread washed over you as you saw the two other hunters who’d suffered the same fate, laying close by in a pool of their blood, missing some limbs. 

You knew them. They never had a place in your heart, but you knew them nonetheless and would never have wished them to suffer like they did. You knew two of them had families waiting at home. Well. Maybe they weren’t waiting, merely hoping that they would come back by some miracle. 

Two feet away from a Kribat’s preys was the worst place to be right now, but you couldn’t move to another spot. Not with the howling Kribat right behind yours and Wrecker’s hiding spot. 

It was awfully close. Too close to your liking and way too angry to hope to survive its attacks if it were to find you. 

Wrecker had you pressed to his chest by a hand right over your breast, detail that flashed into your mind although it was totally irrelevant. He was just stressed like you were. His hands simply reached for you in his haste and happened to find the friends-are-not-supposed-to-touch spot so you dropped it. At least he wasn’t groping. 

The ragged breathing of the feral beast passed as it reacted to a movement nearby, giving chase to the unfortunate creature. For a painful second, you thought that it might be one of your teammates, Tech and Hunter were out of view while Crosshair was peeking back to get a glimpse of the retreating beast. 

Just as you tried to push away to see if the missing clones were around, Wrecker’s hand pushed you more into himself, crushing your boobs like they were never crushed before. 

“Everyone’s okay.” He informed you to keep you still, not releasing his grip. You hummed in acknowledgment. 

“Wrecker.” He hummed back, waiting for you to continue. “Hands off my boobs." 

You’ve never seen a hand fly away as quickly as Wrecker’s did. Yours didn’t even move that fast when you accidentally put your hand on a lump of red coal and you remember having a good reflex then. 

"Hands off _what_?” A harsh whisper in your right ear caused the demolition expert to sputter. 

Apparently, the comlink in his helmet caught your voice. 

“I didn’t know Sarge!” He explained without any more delay. “Sorry Y/N." 

He kept his free hand far from your body now that the danger has passed. It would have been hilarious if only you weren’t at the lowest emotionally. 

” ’s fine Wrecker.“ You shrugged, unbothered by all of it and way too exhausted emotionally to care. It was an accident in the midst of action, nothing more, no need to create a whole drama because of it. 

A piece of wood in the bloody mess caught your gaze. Your heart skipped a beat at the recognizable darker tint of the object, tonight was getting slightly better. 

Crouching, you reached for the thick wood stick, fingers moving along the carvings etched into its length. Both in relief and satisfaction, you found the energy in yourself to smile. 

"Found something?” Tech approached from your side, the remaining missing soldier in tow. 

“Yeah. Most useful stealth weapon on this planet.” You showed him the bloody bow, your other hand sliding your knife into its rightful place in your boot. 

Rolling the body to the side respectfully, you checked for the quiver that you found still strapped to his back. Slowly, you pulled it over his head to pass it over yours.

“This is a fine piece of work.” Despite his words, you could hear that he clearly would never use it to defend himself if he had the choice.

Taking back the weapon, you cleaned the grip and loaded an arrow, muscle memory doing a splendid job into positioning yourself perfectly in a flawless shooting stance. A sigh of relief almost escaped your lips at the feeling of finally being adequately armed. 

“Think it will hurt them more than our blasters?” Crosshair gave you some extra arrows he found laying around, still unconvinced that wood sticks with metal points could surpass their own advanced technology. 

“We’ll know it now." 

You frowned, quickly grabbing an arrow to arm the bow, pulled on the string while aiming over the engineer’s shoulder and suddenly released the tension on the string, scaring the shit out of Tech but hitting your target perfectly. 

The Algax screeched as the arrow hit it right where its left eye would be, retracting its dangerous talons reaching for the goggled clone to grab at its face. 

The troopers jumped at the unexpected screech, although they recovered in record time, turning around, blasters at the ready. They only had time to shoot at its already retreating form. 

"Don’t lose that.” Hunter turned around, pointing at the bow in your hands. “Now let’s go.” He urged everyone forward. 

Quickly, you grabbed the arrows in Crosshair’s hand and stored them with the others. 

As you took your position back at the front, a hand softly grazed the small of your back, by possessiveness or just to ensure that you were alright, you weren’t entirely sure. But Hunter’s gesture was very much welcome. 

The bow was a game-changer. The weapon may not be able to kill them, but it could very easily gain you some time when needed. 

Now, if luck could still stick by your sides, the next useful thing you’d find was a shelter. 

In the following hour, you managed to scare away the next 3 Algax you encountered with a single arrow neatly shot between the hollows where their eyes should be and avoided another Kribat. 

Apparently, these two species were the main population of these parts of the jungle, it was a two-edged knife. The boys got used to hiding around the environment and knew how to react properly at an Algax jumping on them out of nowhere, but you knew those weren’t the only danger around. Would they react adequately when a new monster presented itself?

Tech changed his opinion on your weapon, affirming that he’ll have to build one himself, more technological of course, _improved_ like he said. You kicked his shin at the _‘less-primitive’_ insinuation behind his words. 

“It’s a great weapon that deserves respect Tech.” You reprimanded, arrow pointing to the ground and ready to engage if needed. 

“It does need improvements!” He countered on the defensive and he proceeded to explain what he would do to add more strength to the bow, allowing it to shoot further and at a greater impact. 

Just as Hunter shushed the engineer, you heard your name being whispered in the distance. Fear tensed your muscles in apprehension, expecting claws to tear at your skin any second now. Time went on without any foes jumping out of the shadows, prompting you to continue your route with the others, passing it for the wind or a trick of your mind.

That is until everything went downhill. 

“Do you guys hear that?” Wrecker suddenly asked, immediately catching everyone’s attention. 

Silence followed, seconds after seconds passed in utter silence until, “That! Heard that?" 

"No.” Hunter stopped the group to ensure that they weren’t missing something important. 

“Wrecker, what is it? What do you hear?” A cold sweat ran down your spine, already knowing what he was going to say but praying otherwise. This couldn’t be happening. 

“It’s 99.” Even without knowing who was 99, you knew that it would end badly, there was too much raw worry in his voice to calm him down in so little time. “He’s in danger Sarge!" 

"No! Don’t listen to it!” You jumped out to grab his armor, his hand, his blaster, anything really, not that your small muscles would have been able to stop the bear of a man anyway but your body thought it could. 

He was unexpectedly fast for someone his size, easily dodging your hand to push through his brothers like they were nothing. He ran like a desperate man chasing a dream and it hit you like a punch to the face. This was exactly it. His most desperate dream finally came true to haunt him. 

As you expected, the boys were on his tail in a heartbeat. 

But as you ran after them, you realized that for a team comm that should be flooding in orders for Wrecker to stop and pleas for him to understand that this was a trick, it was dreadfully quiet. 

Your blood froze in your veins as soon as realization dawned on you like a an ice cold bath. 

They all believed it.


	4. Siren Song

“Wrecker. I knew you’d come to help me.” 99 whispered through his comm.

Wrecker couldn’t contain his excitement at his _ori'vod_ calling out to him. He was alright, on this planet, away from the long-necks and their experiments, away from the dirty looks and degrading whispers, away from all the forced maintenance. He left the rainy planet like he always dreamt he would. 

For so long Wrecker ached for the reunion with his brother. He had so much to say to him, from his biggest explosion to date to his best prank on the regs with Crosshair and he couldn’t forget to relate how he fought a giant snake that could have easily swallowed him whole in a single bite! 

He could already see 99 listening intently to each of his words, nodding and smiling as he would move his hands around to illustrate his words, because words weren’t powerful enough to convey the power of the moment. 

Clone force 99 would be complete with its fifth member on board. All they needed to do was get him out of there with the rest of them. 

“That’s not him! Guys!" 

For a split second, Wrecker had forgotten their newest teammate. Their _cabur'ika_. He was so wrapped up in helping his _vod_ that he forgot everything else and let his body take control. His body knew what to do, fighting was in his blood. 

A new spark burned to life in his chest at the prospect of presenting you to his very wise sibling, maybe he could help you with your insecurities like he helped them all with theirs. 

"I know his voice Y/N! That’s him!” He pushed forward, his team right behind him. 

You’d see soon, it was worth it. 99 was worth it. 

“Stay under the trees!”

He would have laughed at your words if he hadn’t caught a glimpse of a man standing near a river. Trees were everywhere on this planet, you didn’t have to worry. Instead, he forced his legs to move faster. 

A huff resonated through the comm just as 99 called again, the newfound fear in his voice made Wrecker’s blood boil in worry and anger. 

He was almost there. He’d help. He’d save him. 

A nagging feeling plagued the back of his mind. It was just like when he forgot to close the light of the fresher one night and caused the ship to be inoperable for a couple of days or when he forgot Crosshair in a secluded village while on a supply run. He couldn’t tell what was wrong, all he knew was that something wasn’t as it was supposed to be. 

Wrecker got to the edge of the river, 99 just on the other side of the large angry stream. The ravine they had followed for a while was visible from his spot on the bank. It seemed they had moved a klick away from it and deeper into the jungle. The tall wall of rock and mud abruptly stopped and disappeared under a tumultuous waterfall that would be breathtaking in broad daylight. 

He doesn’t see them, but Wrecker heard the soft steps of his brothers joining his sides. He didn’t acknowledge their presence in the slightest, his eyes being glued to his elder kneeling on the ground clutching his chest, the grunts of pain leaving his mouth were too clear over the roaring water separating them. 

Without thinking he took a step forward, carefully setting foot in the deep river to reach the other side without getting carried away by the rapids. 

“Wrecker, what are you doing?” Hunter put a hand on his pauldron to keep him from going further into the water.

“He’s hurt!”

Without wasting a second, Wrecker harshly shrugged Hunter’s hand away to venture into the raging water, fighting for his balance against the strong current pushing against his abdomen threatening to take him further through the jungle. Wrecker winced as static took over his comm, drowning the words of his team behind him. 

99’s voice overflowed the nagging sound to encourage him forward, inciting him to grab the outstretched hand as soon as he was within reach. 

“Stay back.” Wrecker ignored the help, he didn’t want to pull his older brother into the river where he’d have no chance to survive. 

The ignored hand gripped his armpit in a useless effort to assist him, water dripped down his soaked blacks and armor, nurturing the grass below. 

“Are you okay 99?” Without wasting a second, Wrecker turned to his brother, already reaching for his frail shoulder. 

The sight squeezed his heart in nostalgia. There he stood, smiling just like the last time the Batcher saw him when they departed for their mission on Devaron. He even opened his arms like he always did whenever they’d all return from their assignments. This was him.

An urge to jump into the long-awaited embrace propelled his body forward to carefully wrap his strong arms around the fragile form of 99. Relief flooded his brain as soon as he felt arms wrapping around his own waist, numbing his senses to concentrate solely on this moment.

“Thank you for making all the way to me.” He heard his voice in his comm, as clear as day, the background white noise abruptly muted as Wrecker’s eyes widened in understanding. 

He managed to pull away slightly before the sight in front of him paralyzed his muscles. By fear, surprise or sadness, he couldn’t decide which one had more control over his body. 

“Thank you for saving me Wrecker.” 99’s lips stayed glued together despite the words echoing through the soldier’s head. The once calming smile had lost all its warmth only to be replaced with a way more sinister grin. 

Half of 99- no, half of the _monster_ disappeared under a layer of darkness slowly bleeding from its eyes, nose and mouth, the black goo covering its right side morphed into parts of someone else. Brown hair, a youthful smile, a broad muscular arm, they all appeared for a moment before the goo engulfed them again and changed over and over again, never truly setting on anything in particular. 

The shiver running up his spine brought the man to his senses long enough for his brain to order his body to move away from the threat. His chest separated from the smaller one as his feet stumbled backward. Unfortunately, his left hand didn’t have such luxury. The liquid tightened around his fingers, crept over his palm to reach his forearm and slide under the sleeve of his blacks. 

He pulled and pulled again without any success. He was trapped. 

“So long…”

It was cold as death, enough to chill the giant to the bone. Bile raised in his throat as the sticky feeling crept up his skin. He tugged as hard as he could, but inches by inches the wicked sludge reached his elbow, gaining complete control over his arm. 

“It has been so long…" 

For some reason the tank of a man has never felt as small as in this instant, heterochromatic eyes staring up at him right in the eyes like his opaque visor wasn’t even there. 

"We’re so hungry." 

Before he could register the meaning behind his words, Wrecker went flying backward a few meters away from his initial standing spot, a heavyweight on his chest pinning him to the ground. 

Everything was happening too fast. Wrecker had some difficulties keeping up. That is until the unprotected skin of the underside of his upper arms burned worse than a blaster wound, his brain instantly knew what happened. 

With a yelp followed by a powerful kick, the clone tried to once again to dislodge the opponent clinging to him. His movements didn’t send the gigantic _thing_ rolling like he hoped, instead it merely shrieked in his face and flapped its cracked white wings to fly away, claws still locked around his arms. 

Fortunately for once, the beast doesn’t get off the ground. Unfortunately, it meant that some parts of its prey had to go. 

Massive maws closed around his helmet, offering an absolutely _atrocious_ view of the beast’s mouth and throat. Wrecker would never admit it, but the sudden fear forced his eyes closed for a split second, protecting his fragile orbs by doing so. Shards of his visor exploded under the assault of some particularly sharp teeth, scratching the sensitive skin around his eyes. 

This high level of panic was completely new for him and he didn’t like it one bit. A nice adrenalin rush was one thing. This was far from the enjoyable spectrum. He wanted to yell for help, but who would hear his call? He was alone. 

The pressure around his head was increasing fast. Saliva covered his helmet, leaving Wrecker to blindly touch around his head for the maws, fingers slipping between the sparse teeth to force them open. The grip around his upper arms tightened, shooting a new wave of searing pain through his body as the claws dug deeper into his flesh. 

Ignoring his agonizing arms, he put more strength behind his movement and had the toothy vice open in a second. A well-placed kick on the bird sternum sent it flying backward, liberating his lacerated skin in the process. 

Hands cleaned his visor in a haste but stopped as soon as his fingertips started to tingle. The soft feeling soon morphed into full-on burning, prompting the soldier to wipe his hands onto the grass at his sides. 

Holes adorned the once intact tactical gloves, showing the damaged skin that it was supposed to protect. 

Before he could question the condition of his hands, a screech pulled him back to reality. 

The milky bird was big, easily four times his size with weird legs and two pairs of arms. The long white beak was pretty sharp with nasty teeth occasionally poking out, its maws opening frantically on a high pitch screech, its old-paper like wings flapping in anger at its side. 

Following the blue trail of bolts hitting the creature, the calls of his brother resonated through the comm without any interference as soon as his eyes landed on their offensive positions. 

His brothers. He remembered them now. He wasn’t alone. They were here. 

”-ot responding.“ Tech 

"Wrecker! Come back here!” Wrecker winced at the _very_ loud order coming from his sergeant. Apparently, it wasn’t the first time he barked his instructions. 

“I’ll get h-” Static filled his ears once again as 99 appeared at his side, hands wrapped around his pauldron.

“Don’t leave me. Please Wrecker, help me.." 

"I’ll hel-” His words were cut off by a sudden pull from behind, quickly followed by water engulfing his armor. 

Gasping, Wrecker tried to keep his head above water by instinct but failed miserably. The strong current left him totally helpless, the force of the water digging into his injuries to make him totally unable to move them around to get to the surface. Where was the surface? He turned on himself so much that nothing made sense anymore. 

A pull on his back stopped his body from turning in all directions, halting his quick descent down the river. Multiple hands pulled him out of the stream and wasted no time to pull him upright. 

“Wrecker can you hear me?” Hunter shook his shoulder forcefully. 

Too soon Wrecker tried to lift himself up using his arms to reassure his brother. All he managed to do was to almost faceplant into the wet dirt beneath his torso. 

“99.” Was all he could say. He still felt a pull towards the other bank where he knew his oldest brother was still waiting for him. 

“There’s nothing there. It’s not real.” Hands lifted him by the armpits to take him back under the cover of the trees. “It was a trick.”

“No he’s right there!” The clone was getting frustrated as everyone ignored his hand pointing behind them focussing instead on keeping him upright. 

A shriek pierced the night followed by a sudden splash of water, causing the three soldiers to jump simultaneously. Wrecker turned just in time to see the bird emerging from the river and fly away with something bright in its mouth.

Once the beast disappeared over the horizon, every memory repressed by the weird fog obscuring his brain came back to the front of his mind. Tears ran down his cheeks as he remembered that 99 died in a Seppie attack on Kamino, that he wasn’t there to help. 

He had to bite his bottom lip to keep his whimpers from escaping, the pain of losing his brother a second time was way worse than it originally felt. Whatever it was back there felt so real, so warm, it told him exactly what he needed to hear and acted like the one and only 99. Deep down maybe he knew already but allowed himself to be blinded by hope. 

And hope crushed his heart in the more twisted way possible. 

Crosshair was the first to let go of his brother when they got deep enough into the line of trees, moving his attention to the grapple fixed under his rifle to put it away. So that’s what pulled him into the river. 

“Are you okay Wrecker?” Hunter’s worry pulled at his already suffering heart. 

“I am.” He weakly mumbled, quieting down the hisses of pain menacing to erupt from his throat. 

“We don’t have much time.” Hunter carefully lowered himself to set his brother at the foot of a large tree. “We have to patch you up and search for Y/N before anything that might ’ve heard the noises comes this way." 

Wrecker perked up at the mention of your disappearance, his eyes roamed the surroundings to get a glimpse of your shirt painted in blood and guts that always gave him a tiny heart attack every time he looked at it. He never thought not seeing that shirt would fill him with dread. 

"What happened?” He asked just as Tech removed his helmet to toss it at Crosshair for examination. 

The jungle looked way more terrifying without the night vision helping his sight. Without it, every shadow looked like an Algax silently staring with its inexistent orbs. 

“We don’t know. We were too…” Tech trailed off, quickly assessing the wounds on his arms. “focussed to notice anything." 

Wrecker winced at the same time Crosshair did, although for a totally different reason. Tech stopped poking at the edges of the wounds to stuff some gauze pads on the bleeding lacerations before wrapping them with a sterile wrap. 

"Cross?” He asked his brother that stopped analyzing the helmet to lose himself in his thoughts, eyes fixed on one of the holes in the visor. 

He seemed taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered, rolling the customized helmet in his hands. 

“Night vision stopped working on one of the lenses. Too damaged. The front is melted at some places,” He turned the helmet over to trace a long crack at the back of the head. “and it may not resist a hit to the right place." 

The frustration in his tone wasn’t lost on anyone. Clearly, the helmet wasn’t the subject of his irritation and no one had to ask for the truth. They were all prey of the same guilt. 

"I’m sorry. She told us not to follow voices.” Wrecker averted his eyes, not able to look at his fuming brother anymore. Whatever happened to you was his fault. If only he hadn’t followed the voices, you wouldn’t be missing. 

Bile raised in his throat as his mind wandered on the dreaded questions. What happened? Were you in danger? Or hurt? Or dead? 

From his experience on this planet, Wrecker knew it was safe to assume that you crossed paths with a monster of the night. This was a certainty. All there was to speculate on was your wellbeing. 

“Her tracker is still working, we’ll find her.” Tech applied a small bacta patch that he pulled out of his belt onto the palm of Wrecker’s hand, the latter hissing in pain. 

“You’re lucky the water washed off any remaining chemical that burned your skin or else we’d see some bones if the state of your helmet is anything to go by.” He admired the edges of the burns that weren’t covered by the patch. “I’ll wrap your fingers together to keep them from moving on each other so refrain from closing your hand. You’ll only damage it more.”

“But I won’t be able to shoot!” He frowned, teeth clashing together as Tech put some gauze between his fingers and wrapped the bandages tightly together. 

“Blasters don’t work anyway.” Hunter grumbled as he turned back to them, letting go of the hair at the back of his neck to face his team. 

“But light does.” The engineer got on his feet to help Wrecker, offering his forearm to pull him up.

“Light?" 

"I threw an emergency light stick at it." 

"How did you know it would chase it?” Wrecker pulled on his helmet that Crosshair held out to him. 

Having only one night vision lens would make it difficult for him to continue, hopefully, it wouldn’t slow him down too much or cause him to miss some monster out there. He couldn’t be more of a burden than he already was at the moment. 

“I didn’t. It was merely a theory.” He typed away at his vambrace, missing Wrecker’s bewildered expression. “And I was only partially correct. They indeed are reactive to light, but they do not fear it as I initially thought. Turns out that light enrages them. It gave up on you in order to eat the stick.” He explained in his signature matter of fact tone.

Before anyone could add to the previous conclusion, Tech continued. 

“I got her position. She’s close” The corners of Wrecker’s lips lifted slightly. They could track you, everything would be fine from here. You weren’t lost. “and unmoving.” The whispered last words rang loud and clear in all the clones’ ears.

Wrecker’s breath wasn’t the only one to abruptly stop.


	5. Bloodhound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words in bold are words said in French, which means the clones can’t understand it. I stopped writing the French in actual French for you guys, it’ll be more useful in the future.

> //25 minutes earlier//

“That’s not him! Guys!” You yelled in the comlink you fished in your pocket in a haste, almost making yourself trip when you pulled on the fabric of your pants at the same time.

The gap separating you from them was increasing more and more with each step they took. Damn their long legs and commando training, you weren’t made to chase this kind of prey!

“I know his voice Y/N! That’s him!” Wrecker was too damn sure of himself, his confidence affecting his brothers’ judgment as well. 

It didn’t take long for rule number one to be thrown overboard and surprisingly it wasn’t by the one you expected, no offense Techie. 

“Stay under the trees!”

This couldn’t be happening. They were all running headfirst to their deaths. According to the lore, Venustes didn’t affect more than one person at a time. You couldn’t know for sure if the lore was reliable or if the other three were following out of concern for the fake 99, but they had to snap out of their own mind trap soon or else they would all be dragged down. 

“H-” A clawed hand appeared inches from your face, cutting short your attempt to call out for your sergeant. 

Instinctively, you threw your body to the ground to avoid getting grabbed by the head and ultimately being crushed like a berry in its grasp and crawled to continue running. Alas, the Algax wasn’t as dumb as you thought, his other hand swiftly reached forward to stab your right thigh with one of its fingers, preventing you from escaping. 

Your screams of pain were muffled by the hand pinning your face to the dirt, waiting before your lungs were empty of any air to lace its long sharp digits around your torso. The feeling barely registered through the thick fog of pain coming from your thigh. 

Your first instinct was to yell at the top of your lungs for help, maybe your distress would get them out of their haze, saving their lives as well as yours, but you quickly found out that your lungs were empty and unable to expand to receive more oxygen. 

The lack of air in your system mixed with the agonizing pain from the retreating talon in your thigh almost knocked you unconscious. You could feel your blood escaping your wound to drip down your legs and nourish the ground under your suspended form. 

It leaned closer, a low crackling sound escaped the slits on its temples. With considerable efforts, your good leg moved up to push against its torso to keep its horrifying face away from yours, the up-close view causing more tears to gather in your eyes. 

Fear and the lack of oxygen quickly took over your body in the form of violent shivers shooking your whole frame. The building pressure encompassing you once more was excruciating, your bow laid on the ground out of reach while your arms were pinned down along your sides, keeping you from stabbing your way out of the situation. 

All you could do was scream in your head out of pain and fear, waiting until your bones gave up under the tightening grasp to pierce your organs and kill you slowly. The boys seemed way too entranced to come to your aid, leaving you to feel as miserable as when you were hunting for the village, without back up and entirely alone. If you were lucky, you’d die alone without another beast feasting on your still alive-but-unable-to-move self. This would be a nice death, as horrible as it sounded. 

You hoped the boys would survive though. Even if they apparently totally forgot that you were there. Not that this came to you as a surprise. People who gravitate around you for some time always tend to go away on their own, leaving you behind just like the clones. But you couldn’t hate them for it, your heart already knew it was coming and had prepared itself for this right moment. 

After all, they had to lie to their chain of command and train a primitive idiot how to fly a ship, they were trapped on this infernal planet once again because you nearly died and they hadn’t seen the Shinehorn sneaking its way into their ship, being too busy fussing over your comatose self. Oh and let’s not forget that you ended an innocent’s life right in front of them without warning. It was only a matter of time before they left. 

Plus, if they were so desperate to meet this 99, it surely meant that he was highly special to them whereas you were the newbie, so no you weren’t mad. You merely wished you had someone who could make you forget everything around like this 99. It seemed nice to have someone that important. 

And finally, if you died maybe you would find a way to come back to haunt them. This could be fun, you could mess with Crosshair’s rifle, disturb Tech while he was tweaking with his prototypes, pushing Wrecker around to your liking because he couldn’t possibly defend himself against you anymore and most important of all, you could mess with Hunter by constantly untying his goddamn bandana. It would drive them all mad, you knew it. 

After some thoughts, you knew they would make it off this planet alive. Together they had a good chance. Hunter’s acute senses along with their brains and elite commando training gave them an advantage the natives never had. Hopefully, they would stay in these parts of the jungle until daylight, where they knew how to deal with the monsters living around. 

Yeah… _Good luck guys._

Eyes closed, you waited for the inevitable snaps of your bones. It resonated between the trees, sickening and disgusting you to the core, but you weren’t flooded under any more pain than the one radiating from your thigh. Instead, you felt nauseous for a whole second when you were once again thrown away, landing on the ground harshly. 

Your body rolled on the dirt, bouncing a couple of times under the force of impact. For as far as you remembered there wasn’t a single time in your life when you’ve been thrown around as much as tonight. This was getting tiring and it’s been dark for only a bit more than two hours. Lucky you. 

Still laying on your back, you breathed erratically to provide the much-needed oxygen to your organs, watching upside down the Algax receiving a second arrow to the head, effectively scaring it away. 

A hunter. You were saved. You were fine. 

Huffing, your body went limp at the lack of imminent danger and talons menacing your life. Maybe you could rest-

“ **Shit. She’s really alive?** ” A hunter you recognized as Farlan walked out of the shadows to slowly approach your form like you were a trapped animal. 

“ **So it’s true then. It’s your fault they’re back.** ” Another Hunter spat, literally, missing your face by an inch. Kerth never liked you, obviously. 

You would have liked to say that those were the hunters you desperately wanted to come and rescue you, but then it would be a lie. None of them appreciated your presence even slightly so they all meant the same thing. This will be a drag. 

“ **Now, who’s back? And why is it always my fault?** ” You pushed on your forearm to sit straight, grunting at the pain in your right leg. 

Shit. The hole left by the talon wasn’t big, approximately two inches wide, but it was bleeding profusely. It was sickening to be able to see the ground through your flesh so you opted to keep pressure on the wound with your hands, camouflaging the hole like it wasn’t even there. If only the pain could disappear as easily…

“ **The nightmares. They’re back because you’re still alive.** ” Kerth pulled a piece of gauze from a pocket on his belt, the sight of the medical supply pulled a relieved sigh out of you. 

_Wait what?_

“ **So the council wants a word.** ” He said with so much venom that your heart skipped a beat. This wasn’t good. At. All. 

Before you could react, the gauze found its way in your mouth, quickly followed by an irritating rope that despite your weak thrashing around got attached behind your head. 

You were brutally pushed onto your belly, hands pulled behind your back to be attached tightly with skillful fingers. A muffled scream escaped your mouth when a knee pressed onto your wounded thigh, tears joining your blood on the dirt. 

“ **Because of you, I’ve lost friends tonight. I’ll make sure to pay you a visit once the council is done with your stupid ass.** ” He growled in your ear. 

Oh, you were so dead. Your bet was on the council, but if by some miracle they weren’t the one to put an end to your life, then Kerth was the next bet. Maybe you shouldn’t have sabotaged his weapons the day of the hunt competition. Or put some poison ivy in his hunting clothes. Or laugh whole-heartedly when he got shit on by a Furant during his ceremonial speech in front of the whole village. Or… one of the numerous pranks you pulled on him for payback of his daily shitty attitude towards you.

Farlan was the one to pull you up and push you forward, leaving the job to spot the monsters to Kerth. The thought of running or fighting was completely futile. You wouldn’t run very far with your untreated leg, there was the possibility that they would shoot you down out of spite too. They seemed very fed up at you for some reason. How could you be the cause of the nightmares reappearing? Also, _they were gone? Since when?!_

This was getting weirder and weirder. 

_________________

> //Present - 10:48 pm//

_“I got her position. She’s close” The corners of Wrecker’s lips lifted slightly. They could track you, everything would be fine from here. You weren’t lost. “and unmoving.” The whispered last words rang loud and clear in all the clones’ ears._

_Wrecker’s breath wasn’t the only one to abruptly stop._

The smile quickly left his face, as well as a majority of his blood. You couldn’t be dead. This couldn’t be happening. 

“Where?” Hunter’s hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly around his blaster,

“700 meters that way.” He pointed deeper into the jungle, where they all came from. 

A weight fell on his stomach and he had to force a deep breath in. You hadn’t made it out of the jungle with them. They had outrun you and left you behind on your own. 

Without a word Hunter took the lead, Tech following right behind with Crosshair on his heels. Wrecker took a single second to gulp down his guilt and shake his arms lightly to regain feeling in his body and not worsen his wounds. He followed silently behind the group, squinting attentively to discern the shadows with his half working equipment.

“300 meters.”

You were resourceful. You knew your planet like the back of your hand. There was no way you were dead. 

“100.”

_Please 99. Don’t let her be dead._

Crosshair stumbled on Tech as the brown-haired clone abruptly stopped, looking around like he was searching for something. With a step forward, Tech crouched to grab a small object on the ground to show it to the rest of them. 

“Kriff!” Hunter punched a nearby tree, exhausted by this succession of ill-fated events. There in Tech’s hand was your comlink, their only way of locating you on this living prison that was this planet. 

Wrecker held onto the last hope he had. There wasn’t any blood, you could still be fine. Maybe you’d dropped your comlink while running away. 

“Hunter.” Crosshair’s voice was unsettling. His usual dry snarky self was replaced by a more small and scared tone that the soldier hadn’t heard in a while. “That’s a lot of blood.” 

And it was. The puddle was big enough and it looked like you’d struggled quite a bit in it too.

The world was spinning. He knew battalions lost men every time they went out on missions. It was a common occurrence for soldiers to die and the remaining ones had to suck it up ad continue the fight. But Wrecker wasn’t used to this. From the very beginning, they were the four of them, surviving each mission thrown their way to fight another day. He never got attached to anyone out of his Batch but you and losing his first comrade in the field hit him hard. 

Sure, the death of 99 left him in crumbles but with you it was different. He was supposed to have your back just like you had his. You saved his life and he didn’t save yours. 

As his eyes fell to the ground in shame, he noticed a small object at the tip of his boot. 

“Tech.” He called, as he raised back up with your earbud in hand.

“So we can’t contact her, she can’t contact us, she’s unarmed and wounded.” Crosshair resumed the situation, your bloody bow, and quiver in hand. “If she’s not dead, she’ll be soon." 

"There’s no way she’d run deeper into the jungle wounded and without her bow. It’s suicide.” Hunter tore his gaze from the large puddle at his feet to follow sparse dark spots staining the grass to their right. “It could be a new critter that doesn’t kill right away or she found someone or something else to protect her." 

So there was a possibility that you weren’t dead. Wrecker felt relieved that his brother came to that conclusion, his own mind was working in slow motion, too distressed at his feelings to allow him to concentrate and _think_. 

"Whatever it is, we’ll find her." 

Even if the words weren’t meant to reassure him, Wrecker felt more at ease knowing that they had a way to track you and that you were possibly safe with someone or something. All he hoped now was that you were alive long enough for them to find you and that ultimately, you’d forgive him. 

Wrecker rushed behind his brothers who followed the trail, jogging at a steady rhythm, slow enough to be able to detect the monsters that might target them but fast enough that they would catch up to you at some point. 

It didn’t take long for the first Algax to cut their road, the shy creature poking its terrifying head from behind a large trunk as soon as it heard them approach.

Wrecker tensed, already gripping the handle of his blaster with his left hand despite the knowledge that his weapon was useless against them. Having his blaster in hand, even if it wasn’t the right one, gave him a sense of security. 

The dark blue creature didn’t have time to lift its hand to reach for them that an arrow flew right into the trunk next to its head. The beast hissed, its long fingers hitting the arrow in anger before moving out of its hiding spot to engage the group. 

"Damn thing.” Crosshair growled, at the bow in his hand or at the beast, Wrecker didn’t know. All he knew was that he almost cheered when his brother managed to scare the beast away with two arrows piercing its chest. 

“Nice work.” Tech approved, light sticks in hand instead of his blasters. 

“You were right. It is primitive.” Crosshair growled, following Hunter who resumed the tracking of your blood on the ground. 

“I’m always right.” He chirped, eyes scanning the shadows. 

“Debatable.” His brother scoffed back. 

“Wrecker.” Hunter called from the front, eyes quickly darting forward when he caught his brother’s eyes. “Let your blaster. Take your blade." 

"Okay.” Against his best instinct, the clone let go of his DC-17, letting it fall on the jungle floor to grab his vibroblade in a firm grip. The blade felt weird in his left hand but it would do. Knives worked on those things, he was still safe. 

The surroundings were calm for a while, and the more time they spent no crossing path with any monster, the more the tension built between them. Apprehension kept them on their toes, eating away at their nerves slowly. 

The next Algax they encountered stood tall in their way like he was challenging them to jump at it. Maybe they were used to being at the top of the food chain, just like the clones were used to being at the top of their game. Regrettably, the clones were in way over their head on this planet but they would make sure that they weren’t the only ones.

Instead of slowing down, Hunter charged at the Algax, stopping only when the sharp metal of his vibroblade was deeply set into the monster’s chest. 

Wrecker waited for a screech, for the creature to start thrashing around or flee like the one that fell down a tree with you. Seconds passed and the Algax lifted its arms like nothing happened, like there wasn’t a long knife jabbed in its thorax and made a move to grab the sergeant who swiftly jumped away, blade still in hand. 

“What?!” Hunter exclaimed, facing the creature once again. 

An arrow in the head managed to get the desired effect, the tall beast running away in its signature hiss. 

“Why didn’t it work? Her knife worked on them!” Hunter was getting more and more on edge. 

“Maybe it could be because our technology is too advanced or because our equipment is not native.” Tech remarked. “It is logical in a sense. This planet created its own rules to protect itself from invaders, so it may have created a sort of protection against anything exterior to its own resources.”

“It is possible?” Wrecker found it quite hard to believe. A _planet_ controlling what could kill or not? Blasters could kill anything!

“The planet changes beliefs in the real thing. Yeah I think it’s possible.” He deadpanned with an eye roll.

Suddenly, the vibroblade in Wrecker’s hand didn’t provide the same sense of security as before. All their hope resided in Crosshair and Tech’s hands. 7 arrows and 3 light sticks. Talk about limited resources. If only he had his backpack containing all his explosives, he could get something done. 

Too deep in thought, Wrecker didn’t notice the wall of dirt right in front of them until he almost rammed into it. They were back to their landmark. 

“We missed each other.” Hunter growled in frustration at the sight of the blood splatters leaving the safety of the trees to disappear under the waterfall. 

Wrecker understood immediately, his own frustration building in his chest. They entered the jungle and you got out of it. Maker knew Wrecker was used to bad timing but this was a new low. Fate was laughing right in their faces. 

Cautiously, they left the dense vegetation to venture into the open area where Wrecker almost became bird food. His eyes were fixed in the open sky, some stars were visible through the small clouds. The bright moon wasn’t at its highest yet, Wrecker estimated that there was another hour before the satellite reached its peak. 

The provided light allowed him to relax the muscles around his eyes. He hasn’t been squinting for long that the beginning of a headache started to form in his skull. 

As they neared the wet dirt, three sets of footprints were easily distinguishable in the wet dirt. The spacing told them that none of you were running. If nothing was chasing you, then why weren’t you patched up?

“We have to find her quick.” Crosshair spat what every brother thought quietly. 

If you were with people that didn’t patch you up and had plenty of time to do so then they weren’t on your side. Even without medical supplies, they should have been able to stop the bleeding one way or the other.

“Stay close.” Hunter called, venturing closer to the waterfall where your blood disappeared. 

With each step forward, the sound of the waterfall hitting the river below became more and more deafening. The sound was assaulting his ears to a point where he almost ripped his helmet off to cover his ears. He managed to hold on, focussing instead on his leader who clearly had more problems than him. 

Hunter had removed his own helmet to pass it on to Tech in hope of covering some of the uproars with his hands. The relief must not have been enough for his arms began to shake, his hands pushing firmly against the sides of his head. 

If only he could reach for his brother and take some of his pain, Wrecker would do it in a heartbeat. 

“Let’s make this quick.” Crosshair took the front, his steps taking him behind the waterfall where a tin border of rocks formed a path to the other side.

Tech nodded his head towards Hunter, his hands already full with the sticks and the extra helmet. 

“Got him.” Wrecker confirmed. His left hand reached for his brother’s pauldron right after sheathing his blade. 

With practiced movements, Wrecker bent to carefully set his pain down, now wasn’t the time to listen to his body. 

With slow steps the tank walked on the wet trail of rocks behind the roaring wall of water, his arm tightening slightly around the body on his shoulder. If Hunter reacted Wrecker couldn’t hear it. 

The rocks were flat enough that he didn’t slip once. The problem appeared on the other side, where the blood trail ended abruptly a couple of feet away from the bank.

“Where to now?” Wrecker asked, still supporting his limp brother. 

“No fucking idea.” Crosshair grumbled, visor moving from right to left where the jungle extended as far as his eyes could see in both directions.

Hunter’s feet returned to the ground when soft pats disturbed the tall clone carrying him, his hands were at his sides, fingers clenched into fists as he grounded himself through deep breaths. 

“Are you okay?” Wrecker dared to ask, his worry for his family finally escaping him. 

Hunter usually took more time to recover from an overwhelming episode like this one and it was apparent that he still needed time, but he opened his eyes nonetheless, ignoring Wrecker’s question to grip onto Tech for support and deeply breathe in, brows furrowed in concentration. 

His head turned in a different direction as the three remaining clones scrutinized the line of trees for signs of a threat. 

“It’s faint.” Hunter whispered, still deep within himself. “Blood. That way.” He pointed at their right before reaching for his helmet in the engineer’s hands. 

“You’re good to walk?” Tech questioned, watching his C.O. warily. His hands lifted slightly in apprehension that Hunter may faint under the pressure he was forcing on his body.

“Yes.” It was weak but firm, leaving no place for discussion, not that either of them would have said anything. They knew what you meant to the sergeant so it was better for their sakes to not put themselves between you and him. 

Back in position, clone force 99 advanced through the trees, their pace building at each passing second. They were almost running when finally they stopped, their boots almost slipping under them in a sticky substance. 

“Karkin’ fuck.” Hunter cursed, his hands tightening around his vibroblade, eyes glued to the corpse lying at their feet. 

“That was you smelled?” Crosshair pushed the eviscerated loth wolf with the tip of his foot. 

“Ye-”

Screams resonated in the distance, cutting Hunter off. Wrecker’s heartbeat loudly in his ears, almost covering the yells of pain under its incessant percussion against his ribcage.

Every single one of the soldiers breathed out in relief at the lack of a female scream. However, they tensed in apprehension as the screams faded and howls filled the air in their place. A new beast was around and they didn’t have any idea of how to react to it. Run? Hide? Would the knife work this time? Or the bow? 

“There were two distinct voices. Males.” Tech stopped his recon of the surroundings to catch his batch’s eyes. “Maybe it’s them." 

"Worth a shot.” Hunter nodded, already moving in the direction of the screams, although this time he kept a slower pace, fully conscious that they were in unknown territory, charging at unknown beasts. 

The screams weren’t too far, but they obviously came from the opposite direction Hunter initially pointed them to. Hopefully, they would find you there, wounded but alive, and he wouldn’t beat himself too much for his mistake. 

Despite knowing that they were useless, Wrecker retrieved his vibroblade from its sheath. The need for a weapon in his hand was too great to ignore, every cell of his being felt the danger ahead and wanted to be prepared although he could never really be prepared for anything this planet threw at him. 

He cringed every time a twig broke under his boots, the soft sound resonating in his own ears like the grenades he liked to throw on the battlefield, resonating into the silent jungle to scream their position at anything that dared to listen. Maybe it was paranoïa slowly creeping its way into his brain, using the aftereffect of the corrupted hallucinations he suffered to play around with his senses. 

Just like right now, the more he concentrated to decipher the shadows with his half working helmet, the more strange the forms became. At first, it was spots from his constant squinting, then he saw small blue lights on the horizon, dancing haphazardly around. After a couple of blinks, the pale lights disappeared as fast as they arrived, leading the bald clone to shrug them off as his eyes playing tricks on him. The constant stress was definitely getting a toll on him, and let’s not talk about the two dives into a strong current. Once this night was over and they get back at the Marauder, he’ll sleep for two weeks straight. 

Softs whines could be heard over unnerving growls and occasional barks, quickly catching the group’s attention. 

“Blood.” Hunter informed them over comm, his whisper almost blending with the rustles of leaves in front of them. 

The group halted in their tracks as Hunter raised his fist, Crosshair already had the bow cranked, ready to shoot at whatever alerted their leader. Carefully peeking over Tech’s shoulder, Wrecker craned his neck to the side to see what was happening around the boulder they used as cover.

He could see the posterior of a large animal, jerking successively like it was pulling at something. Disturbing yelps filled the air and the animal fell backward with its prize tightly encased between its teeth. It rolled near their position but was too preoccupied with the bloody arm in its possession to detect the clones observing it. 

Wrecker knew Tech was recording, there was no way he wasn’t. Not when the monster before them had no skin whatsoever to cover its bones. The canine-like monstrosity easily reached Tech’s waist, had no external skin, leaving its bones to shine under the green tint of their night vision, muscles were observable between the ribs and along the joints, but that was it. No skin. 

“If only we could capture one.” He muttered to which Hunter answered with a glare under his helmet. 

As it ate, Tech’s appreciative whispers filled the comm, muttering about the extra smaller ribs that circled the abdomen of the monster, keeping its intestines from falling all over the ground and marveling about the movement of each muscle, totally bare for his curious eyes to see and analyze at will. 

“Fine fine. We won’t be getting one of those perfect study specimens.” He grumbled, reporting his gaze to the organism that crunched the humerus with only moderate difficulty. “Fascinating." 

"No, it’s not.” Crosshair elbowed Hunter who redirected his gaze to a hollow tree where a figure was shivering, hidden in the darkness. 

“That’s her.” He confirmed, the sniper’s impeccable sight was not to be doubted.

“Why aren’t they attacking her?” Wrecker questioned, puzzled. 

Two other beasts were walking only steps away from your poor hiding spot, ignoring you totally despite acknowledging your presence with occasional glances towards you.

“I have some theories but they are all shots in the dark.” Tech answered when he realized that they were all waiting for his highlights. 

“That’s just perfect.” Crosshair growled. 

The tall clone counted 4 of them, walking between two bodies to tear at the flesh and stain their white skulls with fresh blood. 

He wondered if his brute strength would be enough to smash their bones if needed when he noticed you slowly standing up, hands behind your body to steady yourself against the trunk. 

“Maybe she could come here instead of us going there.” Wrecker pointed out. If only he could catch your attention without catching theirs. “Tech. Do you still have your laser?" 

The toy they kept around to annoy Crosshair whenever he was too relaxed on leave could be more useful than its original purpose.

"Good idea.” Tech walked to the other side of the rock where he could have a clear view of your limping form, slowly making your way toward one of the dead bodies. 

Wrecker was amazed at how unafraid of the canines you were, standing next to one of them to pull at the bow on one of the beheaded corpses with your foot.

“She’s tied up.” Remarked Hunter, his voice merely above a whisper but frightening nonetheless. Your aggressors should be glad that the dogs got them first.

At one point the bow got stuck, the snapping mouth of the monster next to you was deeply buried into the open chest of what once was a man, blocking your progression toward the shoulders.

Wrecker’s breath blocked in his throat and Crosshair cursed under his breath as they saw you tentatively poke the skull of the monster with a very shaky foot before almost falling on your ass with a muffled yelp at how quickly you moved it back when the big bony dog jerked its head up to look at you. 

Crosshair had the creature in his aim, an arrow already pointed at its head if it dared to make a move in your direction. 

Your wide eyes stared back at it until it lost interest and moved further down the body to nib at some abdominal organs. Quickly you pulled out the bow with your foot, head tilted down to your chest to look at your work.

Tech used this moment to point the red laser at your chest, immediately catching your attention by moving it from side to side. Wrecker grinned as your head lifted in their direction, eyes wide in surprise. You spotted them in seconds, maybe because Wrecker was waving. 

Words were muffled by the rope around your mouth, but the wild shaking of your head was clear. Even with only a half functioning helmet, Wrecker could read the fear in your gaze. 

Tech couldn’t close the light fast enough. One skull turned at the source of the small brightness. As soon as it spotted them, earsplitting yaps covered the snarls of the feasting animals, catching the pack’s attention simultaneously. Soon 4 pairs of predatory red eyes stared at them, their maws chattering in anticipation.


	6. Keep your hands to yourself

The yaps exploded in your ears, piercing and unexpected. Your feet immediately moved backward in an attempt to put more distance between yourself and the triggered Yappians, only succeeding to make you fall on your ass when you tripped on the bow discarded on the ground. 

The Yappian that you'd pushed with your feet walked right over your outstretched legs to surround the Batch's hiding spot. Its maws were shaking, causing the bone to clack together in a disturbing play. 

Your hands pulled at the restraints once again to free yourself but the rope was tied too perfectly for you to even lose it up a bit, all you managed to do was burn the tender skin further and groan. You had to give this to him, Kerth was an excellent hunter and he mastered his art to perfection. Too bad for him that the tricks that worked in daylight didn't once the sun was down. 

A flash blinded you for a second before it flew over your head in a blur. Leaves and grass flew in the air as the Yappians ran after the light, their excited clatter morphed into deep growls as they changed their mind on what to attack. One of them rolled to the ground in a snarl as it collided with your shoulder in its haste to get to the offending light. 

You groaned in pain when your back hit the jungle floor, the full-blown impact of the hard bones stole your breath as the beast rammed directly onto the bruises left behind by your free fall from that tree earlier.

You were still trying to get up when hands slid under your knees and under your arms tied behind your back. His grip tightened slightly when you jerked in surprise at his sudden appearance, but losing it once you whined in pain, the throbbing in your thigh coming back to life full force at each of his steps.

"Sorry." He managed between breaths, deeply concentrated on dodging any trees on his way all the while not tripping on anything. 

From Hunter's arms, you could see the three other troopers running right behind the two of you with 4 enraged Yappians right on their heels. The quadrupeds were quickly gaining ground, jumping over obstacles and slaloming between the vegetation with more ease than the clones. 

Running away was futile, they had to fight them head-on or climb high enough to avoid their deadly fangs. It was way too late for the latter so fighting it was.

You attempted to remove the rope covering your mouth by rubbing it against your own shoulder again and again. The rope was tight and unmoving, no thanks to the disgusting gauze in your mouth absorbing all your saliva before you could use it to your advantage. 

Suddenly you were pushed further up Hunter's chest by a movement of his shoulder, allowing his hand under your arms to reach for the rope. After a couple of careful missed attempts, he yanked it down forcefully in one go, irritating the skin of your jaw in the process. You quickly spit out the drenched cloth, ignoring his apology to gaze back at the creatures clacking their teeth together in anticipation, one of them almost closing around Wrecker's shin. 

"Wrecke-!" The cry of his name morphed into a scream as the very familiar feeling of free-falling gripped your heart, almost forcing your stomach out of your throat. 

The wind got knocked out of your lungs as you crashed on your side and bounced further down, hitting rocks, trees, foliage, anything that got in the way of your body tumbling down the sharp cliff. You couldn't cover your face with your hands like your instinct ordered you to, leaving your cheek unprotected against the sharp rock cutting through your skin. 

At one point your whole body was numb, the impacts of the ground and multiple objects weren't registering anymore. Your head was spinning under the constant rolling around until all of a sudden, the world stopped moving in an explosion of pain. 

You chased your breath at the new pain radiating off your ribs, gasping like a fish for a couple of seconds to force some oxygen down your system. You clearly heard the cracking noise that resonated off your ribs and you didn't like it one bit. You rested your head on the ground for a couple of seconds, listening to your body requesting a small break. Your heartbeat calmed down somewhat along with your breathing, relieving some of the lightheadedness that desensitized your limbs screaming in indignation at their bad treatment. 

You tentatively moved your toes and fingers and sighed in relief when you still had control over all of them. With a grunt of pain, you rolled onto your back, away from the trunk that so he generously stopped your progression and pushed yourself to a seated position. The world spun for a short moment, almost sending you back to the ground. 

With deep breaths the world stilled once again, allowing you to discern an unmoving trooper laying on the ground a couple of feet further down the cliff. You nearly puked when you registered that his helmet was resting against a rock. 

Not trusting your feet at the moment to carry you, you used them instead to pull you down the cliff, sliding your bottom on the grass to reach the unmoving clone. As you got nearer, the distinct form of Hunter's helmet became apparent, almost sending you into a panicked state as you definitely couldn't hold the thought of him- or any of his brother- dying on your godforsaken planet. 

"Please be okay." You repeated over and over under your breath, stopping only when you reached his position. 

With shaking hands you reached for his neck, panicking for a second when you felt no pulse. You gulped down the scream building in your throat to force your hands to stop their shaking and _find that goddamn pulse_. 

On your third and most desperate attempt, you finally found the soft beating of a pumping heart beneath your fingertips and you sighed. Now, let's remove the helmet. 

Having never removed a helmet, you were totally in the dark, physically and figuratively speaking. To add to your problem your hands were tied to your back. You first pulled on the helmet, then searched for a seal, before trying to pull again at the best of your capacity but it didn't move an inch. 

"Stupid fucking bucket that saved his life, let go will ya?" You grunted, still trying to remove the damn thing. 

A hand grabbed yours, paralyzing every muscle in your body in fright. Hunter's chuckles soon morphed into groans of pain, the grip around your wrist tightened before letting go to remove the helmet himself. 

"I'm fine _cyar'ika_." The corner of his mouth lifted in a small smile as his gloved hand reached for your dirty cheek to wipe the tears falling from your eyes. 

"You scared me." You whispered, closing your eyes to forget this infernal night for one second and enjoy his hand on your skin. 

"You scared me first." You frowned at the lack of warmth on your cheek and opened your eyes to see Hunter rolling on his side to sit on his heels, facing you. "I'm sorry I let you down." He met your eyes, guilt coating his handsome features. 

He took his vibroblade that thankfully stayed in its sheath after the rude fall and cut the rope restraining your hands. Before even massaging your burned wrists you reached for his cheeks and pressed his lips to yours, starting a desperate dance that no one wanted to break. 

"I won't say I forgive you because it wasn't your fault." You kept him close, contemplating kissing him again but pulling back to keep your head focussed on the important things. "We have to find the others." 

Hunter nodded and pulled his helmet back on as you watched the surroundings for a trace of your missing comrades. 

"Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker. Come in." 

Without your earbud that you lost when the Algax jumped on you earlier, you couldn't hear if there was any answer and it worried you. Hunter stayed silent for a while, rotating his blade in his hand while you massaged your wrist out of anxiety. Did one of them snap their neck? Got impaled? Broke a limb? Fell on a beast? Got knocked unconscious and fell on a beast? 

"I got her. Come to our position and we'll go from here." You breathed out in relief. 

"They're fine." He squeezed your shoulder in reassurance and you nodded, gaze falling to the ground. 

"Oh." You whispered at the sight of your blood oozing from the hole in your thigh. "I'll need that." You went to press on the wounds to stop the flow but were stopped by hands gripping your wrists. 

"What happened?" He checked your injury over, his voice as tight as his grip. He grabbed the discarded rope to wrap it around your leg, just above the wound. 

"I-" Your explanation was cut short by a hiss as he tightened the rope to cut the blood circulation and tie a knot to keep it in place. You opened your eyes that closed shut at the painful stimulus drowning your brain. "clever Algax." You finished, not bothering to do a complete and coherent sentence. 

You heard the sharp exhale emanating from under his helmet but before you could reach for his hand, movement on your right caught your attention and your hand responded in a heartbeat, already reaching for your knife to defend yourself. 

“It’s them.” By his calm tone, you knew he wasn’t talking about the Nightmares. With a sigh of relief, you allowed your heart to calm down and sheath your knife. 

Crosshair’s helmet was the first you managed to decipher between the trees and it was a new feeling, but you were deeply relieved to see him. Him and the others of course. 

The limping in his steps worried you to a point where your heart was beating frantically again. How could he outrun monsters that were after his blood if he couldn't run properly? Having this kind of handicap could sign his death really quickly and his brothers would be devastated. 

Speaking of his brothers, you got to your wobbly feet as you saw Tech's helmet, the movable part of his bucket was nowhere to be seen, one of the hexagons at the side of his head was missing and as he got closer, the arm he kept close to his chest became clear. 

Your once high hopes of survival for the Bad Batch were crashing down at lightning speed and you couldn't help but feel like it was your fault. They came searching for you despite your expectations and they paid for it. 

As soon as he saw you, Wrecker's steps rushed on the inclined terrain to pull you tightly to his chest once you got within arms reach. Immediately you cried out in pain, your fragile ribs definitely on the verge of breaking under the pressure of the hug. 

He almost dropped you like you were the one who hurt him, apologies flying out of his mouth quicker than you could comprehend. 

"I'm so sorry Y/N." He finished his rant in such a sad tone that your heart broke. He was too precious for this world. 

You approached him again to pull him in a soft embrace, the slight pain in your chest was bearable for a short period of time, just enough to show him that you weren't mad. 

"It's fine Wrecker. Don't worry about i-" You interrupted yourself as you pulled away, taking in the state of his helmet. 

"Oh my- Are you alright?" You asked, touching his melted bucket. It must have been a really close call if the Venuste's acid reached his face. 

He reached up to remove his helmet and you noticed his bandaged hand. 

"What the hell happened?" 

"Nothing." You stared at him blankly as one eyebrow lifted slowly, never once breaking the eye contact until he did first, his gaze falling to his shuffling feet. 

"Gotta try something better than 'nothing'." You chided while taking his hand cautiously in yours. 

You couldn't assess the extent of his injuries, the bandages doing a good job at covering whatever was beneath. All you knew was that his whole shooting hand was compromised and that it was still pretty sensitive, the slight pressure you unintentionally exerted at the bottom of his thumb made him flinch and retract his hand. 

"Survived worse than a bird." 

"Yeah. You said that last time too and almost got pulverized by a 'snake'." You looked him up and down, now noticing the bandages around his upper arms and the burn blacks around his neck. "Tried to bite your head off?" 

He scratched his neck in embarrassment and moved his head from side to side once he registered that you wouldn't let it drop until you had your answer. 

"Maybe." 

"Maybe." You parroted before moving to punch his chest plate but stopped at the last second when a deep discomfort prevented you from moving your arm forward. 

"Fuck." You hissed, pressing onto the painfully contracted muscles to relax them. 

"Sit down. You may have broken something during the fall." Tech pushed past Wrecker to force you to obey with a hand pressing on your shoulder. 

"I'm fine." You whined as Tech kneeled before you. "He's the one who knocked his head on a rock." You continued, nodding towards the sergeant towering over your shoulder. 

"I'm fine." Hunter repeated your own words as Tech brushed off your distraction attempt with a "He has armor and you don't." 

You crossed your arms over your chest like a child because yeah, you didn't have armor and it sucked but _he hit his head_! You would bet all your nonexistent money on the fact that he had a concussion. 

"So, why did the bone-dogs not attack you?" Tech asked while patching your legs. Really, what would you do without Tech? Simple. Nothing. You'd be dead. 

But this question was definitely one you didn't want to answer- for the answer was embarrassing. Maybe you'd be better dead after all. 

"You're fine." Hunter's hand found your shoulder for a comforting squeeze. _Oh shit_. He must have heard your quick heartbeat. Thank Maker he seemed to think that it was because you were relieving your experience or something. 

If only he knew. Or better yet, let him never know. 

"It's eh- I'm fairly sure they're called Yappians or Yappers? Yapp-? Whatever. They're not a belief from my village but if I'm right, which apparently I am, they don't attack females." 

With a mental pat on the back for the quick plausible lie, you forced yourself to even out your breathing and calm your heart. The real reason couldn't be changed, they would still be attacked by the Yappians anyway, so the boys knowing the truth was useless. 

"That's a sexist village." Crosshair scoffed under his helmet. 

"Frabasians are very traditional." You clarified with the truth.

The sight of his bad foot barely touching the ground brought tears to your eyes, the guilt was too much after the previous events, the stress and all the running around added to the blood loss made you so exhausted and emotional. 

"Damn it- fuck- it- This is all my fault." You felt the first tear slide down your cheek and immediately wiped it with more force than necessary. You ignored the blood staining your fingers, the new tingling feeling in your cheek reminding you of the rock that tried to meet with its sibling hidden inside your skull. 

Crosshair followed your gaze to his foot and immediately pushed it to the ground in a muffled groan, doing nothing to ease your worry but everything to expand it tenth fold. 

"No it's not-" You scoffed and interrupted the trooper. 

"Yes it is! If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be back on Fors and no one would be on the verge of dying!" 

"No one's dying." Tech grabbed your forearm to catch your attention. "And if it wasn't for you, maybe we'd be dead months ago. Who knows, maybe our devil eye would've killed us." He shrugged and continued his task of patching the gaping hole in your leg with only one hand.

"Stop blaming yourself about stuff that you don't have control over." Crosshair scolded from his position. Even from a couple of feet away, you felt the glare hidden behind the dark shade of his helmet, burning your skin. 

"Come with the package." You scowled and averted your eyes to glance at the top of the hill where everything went down, literally. 

A wall of rocks elevated towards the sky for a good couple of meters, explaining the harsh contact with the dirt when Hunter's legs must have given up under him as soon as they touched the ground. The rest was a nice steep slope strewn with rocks and trees. You actually were lucky that your head didn't hit a rock like Hunter, there were so many of them. 

"Gonna have to work on that." The grey-haired clone mumbled under his breath. You bristled but kept your mouth shut, not in the mood to start shouting back. Missing a couple of pints of blood tended to do that to someone apparently. 

As he neared the end of his handiwork, Tech requested your assistance to tie the knot in the gauze, which you happily obliged. 

"It's our last roll of bandages so try to avoid getting hurt." He pointed out, checking that the two other wounds on your arms were still fine under their protection. One of them had reopened but had stopped bleeding by now. 

"I'll do my best mom." You put some emphasis on the last word, earning a chuckle from the grey sniper and an eye roll from Tech. "So, what's wrong with your arm?" 

All this time he kept it on his lap, unmoving. Before answering the clone eyed you warily, maybe expecting you to feel more miserable than you were now at his response. 

"Bad landing. I'm fairly sure my wrist is broken." He sighed and finished examining your face before getting up, his non-broken hand supporting the other. 

That's it. You felt even more crappy than a pile of Dire bear shit. 

"We should make you a splint or something." You followed, using Hunter's arm to pull you up and stay balanced. 

"No time." He shook his head and dug through his belt, totally ignoring your words of protest. 

"He's right. We gotta move." Hunter cut you off. 

You knew he was deeply concentrated on identifying something that caught his attention into the woods clicks away and that behind his visor his eyes were squinting in thoughts. 

Something was shoved into the pocket of your cargo, reporting your attention into the eyes that stared back at you behind some dirty glasses. 

"Don't lose it again." He warned. "And put this back on." He showed you the earpiece that almost made you puke in anxiety when you noticed it was gone and you shoved it back into your ear as soon as it was in your hand.

"Thanks Tech, won't lose it again, promise!" He nodded with a small smile that crinkled the corner of his eyes and turned around to join the rest of the boys already walking down the hill. Crosshair leaned heavily on his broader brother for support. 

Hunter stayed at your side to help you down after he noticed a wince twisting your face when your foot slipped on a rock. 

After a couple of steps by yourself once you reached the level ground, you could finally assure the sergeant that you were able to walk and he reluctantly let go of your arm and waist in favor to grab your hand in his. Guess he won't be losing sight of you again. 

Your best shot now was to find a shelter and forget the ship for the rest of the night. You could always survive the next hours hidden in a den and find a way back to the ship in the daylight. 

As you analyzed the new environment, it soon became clear that you entered Alrynian territory. The disposition of the trees was familiar, the markings on their bark were even more, you recognized a pile of slim rocks disposed in a particular manner to shape a person and would have run to it if Hunter's clutch wasn't made of steel. 

"What's wrong?" He asked through comm, his question stopping the rest of the troopers in their tracks. 

"Nothing wrong." You pulled him after you and crouched in front of the small statue. "That's a Pinu. We use them to limit our territory and offer direction." 

"We?" Hunter asked, his helmet tilting to meet your face. 

"The people of Alryan. My village." You trailed off weakly, not sure if it offended him that you still referred to Alryans as your people after his team kindly took you under their wing. Should you refer to the clones as your people? It didn't feel right. 

Before you got too deep in your dark analysis of the situation, Hunter hummed in comprehension and returned his gaze to the 6 inches rock person. 

"So what does it say?" 

You forgot your tiny spark of anxiety that ultimately mended with the big cloud in the corner of your mind and took a better look at the statue. 

"The square carved in its chest tells that this is the limit of our hunting territories and the triangle in its head" you stopped for a second to watch the trees around and find a similar triangle carved in one of them, "shows the direction of the village. This way." You pointed behind the group that formed behind you, deeper into the jungle, slightly at the left of your initial path. 

"The men that tied you up, they were from your village, correct?" Tech asked and you knew where he was getting.

"Yes. Apparently, the council wants a 'word' - or whatever that means. They talked about a bunch of nonsense but I know they want my head. That part was clear." 

"Should we head back?" Crosshair asked and you almost agreed, your desire to be close to that village was as high as the Pinu's height. 

"Ye-" 

"No." You cut Hunter off, shaking your head in emphasis. "I know these territories by heart. We can find shelter now instead of walking around without cover. We'll just have to keep an eye open for hunters too." 

The silence stretched for a couple of seconds before a low hiss somewhere within the trees cut the silent debate short. 

"Fine, we stay in these territories." His dry tone told you immediately that he didn't like the idea but would do with it. "Where's the nearest cover?" 

"Close. This wa-" Your words died on your tongue as your shifting eyes found a bloody canine skull peeking from behind a tree, his red eyes staring up at the man still holding your hand. 

Without thinking you jumped between the two, effectively attracting its attention. Merely glaring at you for a second, it started to circle around the group, more of his fellows joining the movement. 

How did they get this close without anyone noticing? Without Hunter noticing? Maybe he really was hurt more than he let known. 

You heard Crosshair's fling of curses as he readied his weapon that you noticed was your lost bow. He only had one arrow in hand, his quiver totally empty of any more ammunition. 

Tech fiddled with the stick in his hand, unable to crack it and throw it away with his one functioning hand. 

Wrecker cracked his knuckles, ready for a fight. 

Hunter was silent and unmoving. His grip on your fingers tightened before you felt his helmet brush against your hair. 

"Go away. They won't hurt you." He released your hand and your whole being froze at his words. 

"No." You replied shakily, in a mix of anger and fear. If he thought you would abandon them to their death after they went out of their way to find you back, he was the worst fool you've ever met. Hell, you've put down your life for them on Murphy Day and you didn't even know them yet at the time. "I'll fight too."

He sighed at your determination and straightened his back, giving you place to lift your stiff leg and grab your knife. Like hell you would let them fight alone. 

You were studying the movements of the Yappian in front of you when you were abruptly pushed forward. You landed in a gasp, hands reaching forward to cushion your fall. The pain booming in your leg as your knee hit the hard ground was soon forgotten as the first sounds of the fight reached your ears. Groans, yelps, yaps, barks, they all morphed together to stab your heart with the sharpest blade this world has ever known. 

Hunter had betrayed your trust, overlooking your will to do as he thought best for his own interest. 

Now back on your feet, you swallowed the yell of rage bubbling in your chest to stab the creature pinning the dark-haired clone to the ground. It jerked away in a high pitch yelp, leaving deep scratches into the dark composite. 

You stepped forward to help Tech who had apparent difficulty with his when something fell onto the Yappian's back to repeatedly hit it with a ball. 

" **Bad dog**." You heard the thing say in your native language, hitting the skull three times before the Yappian ran away in a cacophony of angry barks, his fellows following suit. 

The small newcomer jumped down from his spot to approach the disheveled group. It watched the dead Yappian at Wrecker's feet, the broken bones of its neck clearly told how the clone managed to kill the thing. 

" **Impressive**." The small kid’s voice chirped again and for some reason, it made you relax. 

" **Impressive**." Two new young voices broke the silence, their owners stepping out of the shadows warily. 

"Kids?" Wrecker asked, helping Tech to get back on his feet. They sure sounded like ones and they only reached your mid-thigh, but kids couldn't survive into the jungle at night, it was impossible. 

"Who are you?" You asked and the closest one that scared the Yappian away pulled on the hood of his cloak to uncover his face. 

" **Catchers**." He smiled brightly, arms open wide at his sides in pride. 

His emerald green eyes sparkled kindly in contrast with its dark skin, some untamed light-grey hair falling before them almost making you want to ruffle the strands as they looked so soft. Your eyes caught onto its long pointy ears and you got your confirmation that clearly they weren't human. 

There was lore around the villages of good spirits named 'Catchers' that protected Forsians against the dark monsters named 'Nightmares'. Each village had one Catcher. 

Alryan, the East village had the Looshee, a broad horse-like creature with a thin sail-like protuberance on its back that could glow brightly in a myriad of colors and scare the Nightmares away. 

Frabas, the North village had the Streri, a gracious white bird that could reach the waist of an adult. Its long tail is told to be able to freeze anything that comes in contact with its feathers and ultimately break under the cold. 

As for Nimbel and Athal, the villages in the South and West, you knew very little of their beliefs and their Catchers were unknown to your knowledge. Maybe they were from there. 

" **Happy to help friends**." He tilted his head to the side in a manner that made him even more adorable than he already was and joined his hands before him, clutching what you mistook for a ball. 

In his small hands was a cage the size of a ball you used to kick around with the kids of your village. The cage had a small door and all the bars united at the top and bottom. His was empty but his friends had one each hidden behind their backs, the light radiating from them gave a blue tint to the leaves behind. 

"They seem friendly." Tech noted. "What did they say?" 

"And they scared off the dogs." Wrecker added, his booming voice catching the small ones’ attention. 

" **Strong one!** " The first cheered and the others followed, repeating the words a couple of times with their joyful voices and happy smiles. 

Gulping you forced your smile to stay on your face while slowly lifting your free hand behind you to gather the Bad Batch's attention. 

"You guys remember rule number three, right?" You asked sweetly as if no one's life was at stake. You turned your head slightly to see some Batchers all the while keeping the kids you finally recognized as Lumsins in your line of sight. 

Tech straightened on your left, his breath audibly breaking in surprise. After a second you heard their soft whispers in the comms confirming that they all knew what it meant. 

"Three." Hunter whispered in his helmet, the soft word barely audible other than in the earpiece. 

"Two." A hand confidently grabbed yours and interlaced your fingers together like it was the most natural gesture in the world, the Lumsin giggling at the sight. As much as you wanted to rip your fingers away from his, you knew that now wasn't the time to be holding grudges. 

"One." An almost imperceptible tug to your right informed you of where to run.

With a deep breath you prepared yourself and bolted to your right along with Hunter as he ordered the group to run, the other Batchers doing the same but in a different direction. 

During the second it took for the Lumsins to understand what happened, you took a worried glance at Crosshair who could barely walk on his leg. Wrecker quickly took the matter into his own hands and scooped him up with ease to continue his course with Tech, appeasing your thoughts. 

Hunter ran a bit ahead of you, his longer legs allowing him to cover more ground than yourself. A Lumsin gave you chase, the leaves rustling in its wake giving away its position. 

The Lumsin called you as it followed your every steps, asking for you to slow down and come play. Why did every monster want to play? Who in their right mind would accept that offer? 

You slalomed between the trees and earned some branches to the face, Hunter's pace was almost too much for you to follow but somehow he managed to keep you upright with pulls at the right time whenever you started to trip. 

It seemed like an hour, the hectic heartbeat in your ears was deafening and your chest was burning, your whole body wanted a break from the abusive work and rest for a week at the very least. 

Maybe it was the alarm in your head telling you that this couldn't continue any longer or it was the young cries gaining ground on your heels. All you knew was that you snapped and put the brakes to face the enemy head-on. Hunter's hand slipped from yours, not without nearly ripping your fingers off, the sudden pull throwing him off balance and he crashed to his knees after he failed to keep himself upright. 

The Lumsin hid between some trunk, its steps once assaulting your ears were now inexistent. You had to give them credit, their response time was impressive for a kid creature. 

"Do as I say and not what I do, eh?" Hunter joined your side to cover your back. 

"I have the advantage of knowing the lore." So you knew this one wasn't the biggest threat out of the lot, it could be taken down. 

" **I'm here to play Lumsin**." You taunted in hope that it would come out of hiding. 

Your eyes moved between every shadow, every moving leaf, every root amalgam that could hide the Nightmare, never staying more than a second on a focal point before passing to another. 

Seconds passed and your patience was rewarded. A rustle of leaves alert you of its position and you were ready. 

The young creature tried to surprise you by falling from above, all it managed to do was make an easy target of itself. Your knife found its chest with ease, the blade slicing against the metal of the cage for a moment before it was dropped. 

The Lumsin jerked as it touched the ground, pained whines escaping its mouth and tears falling from its eyes. You couldn't watch as it disappeared in a smokescreen, their agonizing childlike form almost too much on your heart. 

_It's a monster._ You had to remember yourself. _Not a kid. A monster._

"Nice job. Now let's do that with the others." The clone placed your knife back in your right hand and took the left to pull you towards his brothers who were still running. 

You heard it more than you saw it, Wrecker hit something at full speed and fell to the ground, dropping Crosshair in the process who grunted and cursed like an old man. Tech abruptly stopped to help his brothers just as you pulled your hand out of Hunter's grip to stop tripping and get there faster. 

The Lumsins moving into the shadows caught up to them fairly quickly, one of them diving for Wrecker. 

_Not on my watch._

You maneuvered the knife in your dominant hand and felt the soft handle between your fingers, moved your arm back, took aim at the spot right over Wrecker's back and threw the knife. A couple of spins later, the Lumsin received the blade right in the side just as it jumped on the clone's backplate, the impact propelling it to the ground and away from your friend. The cage it was carrying rolled away, the blue flame trapped within flickered briefly before losing its intensity and size until it vanished entirely. 

Tech yelped in distress. There he laid on the ground with a Lumsin standing tall on his chest plate. Before you could reach him to help, Crosshair kicked the small Nightmare in the chest, clearly ignoring the injury in his legs for his brother's safety. 

The Lumsin whined in its efforts to get up and tumble to its empty cage lying at Crosshair's feet. With a scoff, the sniper crouched to grab the cage and you weren't fast enough, your scream didn't bounce between the trees fast enough, you failed. 

"No!" You screamed too late, his fingers already touched the metal of the bars and his fate was sealed. 

Crosshair's eyes flashed blue for a second before a blue flame extracted itself from his chest to follow his arm and enter the now open cage. The door closed right behind the flame and disappeared to offer no way out before the flame trapped inside was consumed. 

" **Delicious food. Finally. Finally. Not hungry no more.** " The green-eyed Lumsin chanted and dove for the cage, his gaze hypnotized by the new fire dancing in its prison. 

Tech caught Crosshair's limp body before it touched the ground while you jumped for the cage to protect the defenseless soul inside. A cage could only contain one soul at a time, meaning that you were safe to manipulate it as long as Crosshair was trapped. 

You grabbed the cage and rolled to cushion the crash, making sure to have a good grip on the bars. 

" **Give it back!** " The Lumsin yelled in anger, its eyes shifting from their bright green to a darker tint. " **Mine! Mine!** "

Eyes wide, you pushed yourself backward with your feet, arms tightly wrapped around the round prison. 

"No! Leave him alone!" You shouted when it gripped your foot. 

Hunter stabbed the creature with his vibroblade, the blade pierced its chest to exit on the other side, dark blood oozing from the wound. 

"Again?!" Hunter yelled as the Lumsin watched the blade in a fit of chuckles. 

" **Not the core. Protect the core. The first creator.** " It removed the blade, dropping it like it was nothing. " **Protect the core.** " It screeched and prepared itself for a jump that never came. 

An arrow flew from your right and hit the wicked soul-eater right in the gut, scaring it away in under a second. 

" **You motherfucker!** " You heard an impressed whistle from the origin point of the arrow and immediately perked up at the voice. 

The familiarity of it caused your heartbeat to skyrocket. You knew this voice for years now, from its excited tone to its darkest depressed one, you’ve heard it for nearly all your life.

A man a year older than you erupted from the shadows, bow in hand, wearing the basic hunter equipment. His dark-red hair was longer than in your memories although his blue eyes were just as clear and beautiful. 

" **So you really survived outside?** " He whistled, impressed..

He managed a big total of three steps before two blasters were pointed at his chest and one vibroblade was ready to find a way in his chest. 

" **Whoah! Shit! Don't shoot the carpenter!** " He yelled, the sudden appearances of this many weapons threw him on his ass. 

"He's fine!" You hurried out, realizing that the Batchers associated him with danger. 

"Who's that?" Hunter kept his gaze on the man whose hands were high in the air, bow discarded at his side. 

"Kayden. He's my friend." You watch him up and down before adding, "I was desperate." 

"Bitch." He frowned and kicked you on the leg with the toes of his boot. 

"Asshole." You stick your tongue out at him and instantly you were thrown back into the easy relationship that you only shared with him. 

"So he's a good one?" Hunter slowly lowered the blaster he took from Tech's holster. 

"I mean. He's not of the ones who try to kill me but good is too generous. He's an idiot." You snickered at his glare. 

"Now I regret saving your ass." He got up and dusted his pants. 

You remember the cage in your lap as you tried to get up, your gaze moving over the soul flickering in rapid succession like it was shaking. Your heart squeezed for the sniper. You didn't know how or what he felt at the moment but knew he must be confused and very possibly terrified. One second he had his body and the next, he was nothing else than an intangible being locked up until you figured out a way to get him out. 

"Who's that?" Kayden asked, cautiously kneeling to your side under the watching gaze of the dark-haired sergeant. 

"Crosshair." You whispered, your own gaze moving to the sniper's body that started to get to its senses, head cradled in his hands. 

"Ow. Sucks." He grimaced. 

"Wait. What's with Crosshair?" Tech questioned, from his position near said brother, his hands already moving over his slim limbs to detect what was wrong with him. 

"His soul got sucked out from his body and trapped in that." You lifted the cage and silence fell over the comm. 

Tech stopped his ministrations on Crosshair to slowly turn his head in your direction, incredulity coating his voice. 

"Excuse me?" 

"Crosshair's soul." You pointed to the flame in your arms. "Crosshair's empty body." You pointed to the moving trooper. 

"How-" Tech's voice raised a few octaves and immediately a few howls answered his voice. 

"Okay." Kayden dragged the word for a solid three seconds before turning on his heels. "I'm outta here. I've secured a cave nearby, feel free to join." And he already started trotting away. 

"Grab Cross and let's go." You ordered Wrecker who obeyed without being told twice. 

You hurriedly grabbed your knife now laying on the ground and scurried after Kayden with the rest of the boys, the cage firmly pressed against your abdomen.


End file.
